Andrew Alexander and Charles Holmes.

Andrew Alexander, bureau chief, and Charles W. Holmes, foreign editor of the Cox Washington Bureau, share Cox’s Arnold Rosenfeld Editor of the Year award for 2002.

They have been recognized for increasing the quality and quantity of stories emanating from the bureau, and for managing the work of Cox’s foreign correspondents in hostile spots around the globe.

During the U.S.’ live war on terrorism in Afghanistan, Cox’s correspondents on the scene were a combination of those sent by the bureau and by three large newspapers.

"The decision was made early on that basically we would run the war coverage, even among the reporters that the papers sent," Holmes recalled.

"It made more sense to centralize. We had great talent from Atlanta, Palm Beach and Austin who went to the Middle East and Central Asia and turned some great journalism that was available to all the papers.

"It had a multiplier effect," Holmes said. "It increased our staff and our ability to dispatch reporters to various places, and it gave reporters at the papers a taste of foreign reporting they would not otherwise have had.

During the war’s air-bombardment phase, U.S. reporters found themselves on the ground watching distant smoke plumes from over ranges of mountains.

"The cliche ‘fog of war’ applied," Holmes recalled. "Because they were on the ground in the middle of it, we did a lot of joint bylines with people covering the Pentagon. They got a sense here of what the objective was, and those over there provided the color."

Once a ground force had landed and established a foothold at Kandahar Airport, U.S. correspondents were frustrated at their inability to be co-mingled with the troops.

"That’s right, and it’s still a problem," Holmes said. "The Pentagon has been fairly closed about coverage. It makes the argument that because most of it involves special forces, it doesn’t lend itself to traditional war correspondents going in with troops. We naturally argue the other way. What we have been able to do is find out what’s going on from the Afghan troops who are fighting with the Americans."

Holmes formerly reported for Cox from Jerusalem and Moscow, so he knows a lot about reporting in harm’s way.

"One of our guys, Larry Kaplow, had a very close call when he was threatened. Fortunately he escaped from it just fine.

"It points up the perils of the job and how danger can come at you when you least expect it. Daniel Pearl (the slain Wall Street Journal correspondent) had no idea what to expect from the people with him. We leave it up to the correspondents and their innate feel of what’s safe and what’s not.

"Andy Alexander and I have had e-mails all along from Jay Smith and Ron Martin (Cox Newspapers executives) asking, ‘Is everyone safe?’ ‘Is everyone all right?’ ‘Do we need to hire bodyguards to go with them?’ "

It long has been one of Washington’s most productive, and increasing the Cox bureau’s output was aided by the re-focus of U.S. news squarely on the White House.

"That’s right," Holmes said. "The problem after Sept. 11 was there were too many stories to write, too many angles to cover.

"I believe Andy shares this belief, I hold it, that the award reflects the hard work that the reporters have done abroad. They have worked a lot of long days and nights to keep us competitive with other newspaper groups."

Arnold Rosenfeld was senior vice president and editor in chief of Cox Newspapers from 1989 until his retirement in 2000.