The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s "Atlanta and the World" section was an idea that needed a good editor to launch it in February 2002.

	Click Thumbnail to View Full Image
	"While others pay lip service to international news, Raman Narayanan lives it, literally and figuratively. Raman and his staff bring the world’s stories to Atlanta, told in the words and actions of the city’s booming and diverse ethnic populations. The result: A lively, informative and very personal weekly section called ‘Atlanta & the World.’"

Raman Narayanan is that person. He is the story he covers. It is the story of how international news has become local news in the South.

His proficiency at it made him the newspaper group management’s choice for its Arnold Rosenfeld Editor of the Year award. This category is named in honor of the Cox Newspapers’ editor in chief who retired in 2000.

Raman Narayanan was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1955. His father intended for Raman to become a banker. The 18-year-old disagreed and ran away from home.

He went to work as a crime reporter for the New Straits Times, a 180,000 circulation daily. Later, he and seven other employees moved to The Star, a 29,000-circulation tabloid. In a few years, they built the circulation to 125,000.

In 1985-86, he spent a year studying at the University of Michigan.

He went back to Malaysia full of ideas and energy. But a few years later, his newspaper was shut down by the government after uncovering corruption. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told Raman, Malaysia didn’t need "your type of adversarial American journalism," adding journalists don’t have to go out and "face the people in election" like politicians do.

"I told him, ‘We do that every day, sir. You only do it every 5 years,’ " Narayanan recalled.

He returned to the U.S and became Op-Ed editor of The Atlanta Constitution. While he was there, the Constitution won the Op-Ed page category of the new Association of Opinion Page Editors awards.

In 1995, Narayanan returned to Malaysia to work for democracy with then Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. In 1998 those efforts were repressed. Ibrahim remains in jail today. Narayanan fled the country to avoid arrest. He was an editor and writer for Cable News Network before rejoining the Journal-Constitution.

Narayanan and a staff of five reporters for "Atlanta and the World" cover the global connections that make every international event seem to ripple through Atlanta.

Manny Singh, a board member of the Sikh Study Circle, explained that a story on his community made it feel a part of Atlanta.

The "Atlanta and the World" section won the new International Perspective category of the mid-year AP Managing Editors awards in 2002.

Narayanan and his wife Christine have two children, Sheila, 13, and Surian, 9.