Jacobson Joins Roll Call as Deputy Editor
Roll Call has named Louis Jacobson, a veteran lobbying and politics correspondent, to the newly created position of deputy editor from which he will oversee various aspects of the newspaper’s coverage.
For the past 11 years, Jacobson had been with National Journal, the weekly magazine of politics and government. From 1997 to 2004, Jacobson was one of the magazine’s three lobbying correspondents, covering the business of K Street. One of his key projects was to help assemble several of National Journal’s biennial salary surveys of trade-association CEOs.
Jacobson, 33, also wrote for National Journal about electoral politics and policy, including Congressional redistricting, ballot initiatives and state affairs. From 1994 to 1997, he was an associate editor at the magazine, covering Congress and editing the People and Hill People sections. He joined the magazine as a reporting intern in 1993.
Within National Journal Group, Jacobson was also a contributing editor with CongressDaily and Government Executive magazine. Working with co-authors Michael Barone and Richard E. Cohen, Jacobson was the principal contributing writer to The Almanac of American Politics 2004, writing more than 130 chapters describing Congressional districts. He was also a contributing writer to the 2000 edition of the Almanac.
Jacobson has also freelanced extensively, filing stories from 48 states — all but Alaska and Hawaii — since 1996. On regular reporting trips taken during his vacation time, Jacobson has written regularly about American news and science for The Economist, the parent company of Roll Call. He has written about science for The Washington Post, served as a photography and visual-arts critic for Washington City Paper and has covered land-use policy for the magazine Planning.
Jacobson wrote a bimonthly column about small business and government for the now-defunct Breakaway section of The Wall Street Journal, where he had been a reporting intern in 1992.
A native of Washington, D.C., Jacobson earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Princeton University, where he was also executive editor of The Daily Princetonian.