[This article originally appeared in the January 1998 edition of TJFR Business News Reporter, Vol. 11 No. 11]

Stephen J. Adler has been named an assistant managing editor of The
Wall Street Journal. The former deputy Page One editor does not
replace anyone, but rather becomes the Journal’s fourth a.m.e. — a
position one notch below that of the paper’s two deputy managing
editors.

Mr. Adler, 42, has been with the Journal for nearly 10 years and has
spent the last few years focusing on high-profile investigative
pieces, first as investigative projects editor and, since last
January, as deputy Page One editor.

He was the editor of the Journal’s 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning
coverage of the tobacco industry, written by Alix M. Freedman; and
was also in charge of groundbreaking stories on emerging AIDS
therapies and the Page One piece on the death of basketball star
Reggie Lewis.

In his new role, Mr. Adler will continue to work closely with the
paper’s top investigative reporters to shepherd major story
projects. He will also assist managing editor Paul E. Steiger in “a
variety of news and administrative assignments,” according to Mr.
Steiger’s memo announcing the appointment, “including from time to
time directing the coverage of major running stories that cross
bureau and page lines.”

Mr. Adler’s role will make him the only assistant managing editor
focusing on the paper’s news content. James Pensiero is responsible
for budget, personnel and the news department end of the production
process. Paul Martin Sr. is in charge of quality control, including
investigating possible corrections and policing style. And Carolyn
Phillips has responsibility for recruiting and staff development.
According to one insider, Mr. Steiger’s appointment of Mr. Adler,
whom he likes and trusts, signals that he realizes that he needs some
help with the day-to-day management of the paper.

With the new Dow Jones television partnership with CNBC, the
scheduled introduction early this year of the paper’s Weekend
section, plus The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition and other
projects, Mr. Steiger does not have the time to devote to some of the
paper’s big, interdisciplinary projects that he has long championed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Adler, who had been editor of the American Lawyer
before joining the Journal in 1988, has become the “investigative
journalism guru” at the paper, according to the staffer.

Replacing Mr. Adler as deputy Page One editor is William Grueskin,
an editor on Page One who joined the Journal only two years ago. Mr.
Grueskin joined from the Miami Herald, where he had been city editor,
first for Broward County and then for Miami itself. The first day on
that job was spent coordinating the paper’s coverage of Hurricane
Andrew, for which the Herald eventually won a Pulitzer
Prize.  -30-