Heard from Ben Montgomery (formerly of Tribune, now of Times) in response to an e-mail I sent him after my last post about the newspaper war. Here is what he had to say about his move:
"I was talking to the Times a little when I was at the Times Herald-Record in New York, but it was slow going. My editor up there, Howard Altman (previously ed. at Philly's City Paper), landed the cops/courts editor spot at the Trib and invited me down. I figured that if I came down and did good work at the Trib, the folks at the Times would notice.
"It's been a goal for a few years to work for the Times. I've found it to be a place where getting better at doing journalism is a priority. They have a brownbag scheduled for next week with Anne Hull (WP). The week after it's Dennis LeHane (Mystic River). I'm like a kid in a candy store."
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2006.