Milton Coleman

Milton Coleman "is deputy managing editor of The Washington Post. He joined the newspaper in 1976 as a reporter on the Metro staff, where he covered politics and government in Montgomery County and the District. In 1980, he became city editor and moved in 1983 to the National news staff, where his covered minorities and immigration, the 1984 presidential campaign, state and local governments and Congress.

"In 1986, he was named assistant managing editor for metropolitan news, and for the next decade directed The Post’s local coverage. In July 1996, he was promoted to his current position, from which he runs the newsroom personnel office, has been the principal architect of the newspaper’s strategy and development of zoned editions and has helped to lead efforts to improve coverage of Latinos, including news in Spanish and the purchase of the Spanish-language weekly El Tiempo Latino in May 2004.

"Coleman began his journalism career as a reporter for the Milwaukee Courier, a black weekly, and worked as a reporter or editor at the African World newspaper in Greensboro, N.C., the All-African News Service, and WHUR-FM news in Washington, D.C., Community News Service of New York and the Minneapolis Star.

"Born in Milwaukee, he received a bachelor of fine arts degree in music history and literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which in 1998 named him as a Distinguished Alumnus. In 1971, he was a Southern Education Foundation Fellow, and in 1974 a fellow in the Michele Clark Summer Program for Minority Journalists at the Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University.

"He has served as a jury chairman for the Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism, as a judge for the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards, the Associated Press Sports Editors, National Association of Black Journalists and Asian American Journalist Association awards, and as a judge and chairman of the judging committee for the Seldon Ring Award for Investigative Reporting.

"He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Minority Media Executives, the Inter-American Press Association and a member of the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, where he is chairman of its diversity committee. He also has served as coordinator of the Friends of Herb Denton committee, which each year selects a recipient for an $90,000 college scholarship in memory of the former Washington Post editor and foreign correspondent.

"Coleman was a Boy Scout leader for more than 20 years, serving at various times as scoutmaster of Troop 1650 in Southeast Washington and of Troop 544 in Northwest Washington. He is a recipient of the District Award of Merit and the Silver Beaver Award, the highest award given to volunteer leaders. In 1994, he was one of five Scout leaders in the nation given the Spirit of Scouting Award by the National Council of Boy Scouts of America for outstanding contributions to Scouting in America’s inner cities."

"He is a past member of the Board of Visitors of the School of Communications at The University of Alabama and the Board of Directors of the American Press Institute."


 * Former Director, Inter American Press Association
 * Fellowship Advisory Committee, Alfred Friendly Foundation