Manuel Roig-Franzia has been a Washington Post staff writer for eight years, but he’s never worked in Washington. Returning from a three-year assignment in Mexico City, he’ll now be writing features for Style and showing up in the newsroom. What will change?
“I can’t go to work in a robe and flip-flops,” he says. “I have to shower.”
Ceci Connolly, his life partner and veteran health-policy writer for the Post, is certain Roig-Franzia will be dressed and scrubbed as he roams the town “finding yarns,” as he says.
Connolly and Roig-Franzia met and fell in love while covering Hurricane Charley in 2004. They teamed up again to cover Hurricane Katrina. When Roig-Franzia became the Post’s Central America correspondent, Connolly took a leave and moved to be with him in Mexico City.
Both are back at an opportune time for the Post. Roig-Franzia becomes one of the best writers on a Style staff that has lost some of its big talent, such as Tamara Jones. Connolly brings years of experience covering politics—including the 2000 Al Gore presidential campaign—and a deep Rolodex to cover the state of healthcare in America and upcoming conflict over reforming the system.
“Too many news organizations cover news like seven-year-olds playing soccer,” she says. “They all glom around the ball. There’s a value to going outside the pack,” which Connolly vows to do.
In Central America, Connolly wrote a series on AIDS and ventured into food and travel writing; Roig-Franzia, a native of Spain, became intrigued with Cuba. “I found it so extraordinarily exotic,” he says. “It’s an island, it’s isolated, it has the intrigue of being run by Castros for a half century. It’s like going back in time.”
In his first month at Style, Roig-Franzia already has written seven features, from a sketch of how Congress botched the vote on the first financial bailout to a profile of a Bataan death-march survivor.
How long can the Post afford to publish long-form journalism, no matter how sweet the prose, when newspapers are moving to short form on the Internet?
“I think features will have a place for a long time,” says Roig-Franzia, “based on the response for the article we do.”
What about Connolly, 45, and Roig-Franzia, 42, marrying?
Says Connolly: “We just never got around to it.”
This article first appeared in the December 2008 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.
More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Society Photos
Post Watch: From Mexico With Love
Manuel Roig-Franzia has been a Washington Post staff writer for eight years, but he’s never worked in Washington. Returning from a three-year assignment in Mexico City, he’ll now be writing features for Style and showing up in the newsroom. What will change?
“I can’t go to work in a robe and flip-flops,” he says. “I have to shower.”
Ceci Connolly, his life partner and veteran health-policy writer for the Post, is certain Roig-Franzia will be dressed and scrubbed as he roams the town “finding yarns,” as he says.
Connolly and Roig-Franzia met and fell in love while covering Hurricane Charley in 2004. They teamed up again to cover Hurricane Katrina. When Roig-Franzia became the Post’s Central America correspondent, Connolly took a leave and moved to be with him in Mexico City.
Both are back at an opportune time for the Post. Roig-Franzia becomes one of the best writers on a Style staff that has lost some of its big talent, such as Tamara Jones. Connolly brings years of experience covering politics—including the 2000 Al Gore presidential campaign—and a deep Rolodex to cover the state of healthcare in America and upcoming conflict over reforming the system.
“Too many news organizations cover news like seven-year-olds playing soccer,” she says. “They all glom around the ball. There’s a value to going outside the pack,” which Connolly vows to do.
In Central America, Connolly wrote a series on AIDS and ventured into food and travel writing; Roig-Franzia, a native of Spain, became intrigued with Cuba. “I found it so extraordinarily exotic,” he says. “It’s an island, it’s isolated, it has the intrigue of being run by Castros for a half century. It’s like going back in time.”
In his first month at Style, Roig-Franzia already has written seven features, from a sketch of how Congress botched the vote on the first financial bailout to a profile of a Bataan death-march survivor.
How long can the Post afford to publish long-form journalism, no matter how sweet the prose, when newspapers are moving to short form on the Internet?
“I think features will have a place for a long time,” says Roig-Franzia, “based on the response for the article we do.”
What about Connolly, 45, and Roig-Franzia, 42, marrying?
Says Connolly: “We just never got around to it.”
This article first appeared in the December 2008 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.
More>> Capital Comment Blog | News & Politics | Society Photos
Must-Reads
Take Our Restaurant Survey and You Could Win Dinner at a Mike Isabella Restaurant
10 Fall Festivals Near DC That You Don’t Want to Miss
Washingtonian’s Great Places to Work Application
DC is Getting an All-Male Burlesque Brunch
September 2016: How to Dress in DC
More from News & Politics
Man Stabbed Over Drunk Food in a Crime Most DC
Presidential Debates Aren’t About Style or Substance. They’re About Pressure
Do Women Have to Talk Like Men to Be Taken Seriously? And Should They?
Photos and Scenes From the African American History Museum’s Opening Day
How History Museums Around the US Have Presented the African American Experience
Frederick Could Be an Urban Suburb of DC–Unless Its Good Ol’ Boy Past Gets in Its Way
Road Closures, Traffic Detours, and Security Information for the African American History Museum Opening
FDR Defended His Dog During a Campaign Speech in DC
Most Popular
The Best Cheap Restaurants in Washington, DC
100 Very Best Restaurants
9 New Restaurants to Try Now
How One Couple Transformed a Virginia Estate into the Ultimate Southern Lawn Party Wedding
I Was at the Montgomery Mall During the Shooting. This Is What It Was Like Inside.