Congressional Quarterly Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 8:04am on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

CQ Budget Tracker to Provide In-Depth Coverage of Proposed 2011 Federal Budget

Washington (February 1, 2010) -- CQ-Roll Call Group today announced that CQ Budget Tracker will offer in-depth, comprehensive coverage of the president's FY 2011 budget proposal.

"President Obama's submission today of his fiscal 2011 budget proposal kicks off what is sure to be a contentious debate over the nation's spending priorities," said Mike Mills, editorial director and senior vice president, CQ-Roll Call Group. "CQ Budget Tracker provides our subscribers with keen analysis and insights into the spending process, as well as the ability to drill into the programs that matter most to them."

CQ Budget Tracker provides a complete package of original source documents, exclusive news coverage and behind-the-scenes analysis from its experts. CQ Budget Tracker organizes the budget proposal by subject area, offers department and agency budget justification documents, and provides an original story on each area.

CQ Budget Tracker offers:

-- The entire budget proposal and relevant documents shortly after their release.
-- Agency statements about their sections of the budget.
-- Congressional reactions from key members to the budget proposal.
-- Transcripts of hearings with the OMB director and original reporting--using the resources of the entire CQ newsroom--on all major agency proposals.
-- Continuous news updates on hearings, markups, amendments and conference coverage, plus schedules, testimonies, and other transcripts.

In the coming weeks, CQ Budget Tracker will also cover appearances by administration officials as they visit Capitol Hill to defend their agencies' budgets.

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:36pm on Sunday, September 27th, 2009

Mike Mills, editorial director of CQ-Roll Call, announced a new editorial structure for the company on September 24, 2009:

"Today we announce a new editorial structure for CQ-Roll Call Group. The changes I’ve outlined below are the result of an intensive analysis of our editorial operations conducted over the two months since Roll Call acquired Congressional Quarterly. This new structure, we believe, will streamline our editorial processes and help us reduce costs. But, more importantly, they will allow CQ and Roll Call to better excel at delivering the most timely, insightful and relevant journalism and online information services that our readers and clients have come to expect over the years.

Our new structure will constitute the largest newsroom covering Congress and government, with 184 reporters, editors, researchers, legislative analysts, copy editors, Web producers, graphics designers and other professionals, publishing dozens of print and online publications and online information services. It is with great sadness, however, that today I announce the departures of 44 editorial personnel from the CQ and Roll Call newsrooms. Their positions were eliminated, effective today, either because their jobs directly overlapped with others in our merged companies, were redundant in our new streamlined operations or were determined not to be core to our mission."

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:02pm on Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Roll Call Group, a division of The Economist Group, publisher of The Economist magazine, is buying Congressional Quarterly. The Economist Group made the announcement on July 21, 2009:

Roll Call Group today announced it has agreed to acquire Congressional Quarterly from the Times Publishing Company. Under the terms of the agreement, Roll Call, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Economist Group, will purchase CQ to form a new company to be known as the CQ-Roll Call Group.

"We are delighted to welcome Congressional Quarterly to Roll Call," said Laurie Battaglia, Managing Director and Executive Vice President of Roll Call Group, who will become the executive leader of the new merged enterprise.

"The new CQ-Roll Call Group will have the largest and most experienced newsroom covering Washington and will be the leader in providing insight and analysis about the workings of Congress," Battaglia said. "CQ and Roll Call are both highly regarded for unbiased, authoritative journalism and excellence."

"The Times Publishing Company takes great pride in the success of Congressional Quarterly, and takes great pleasure in knowing that it has a very bright future as part of The Economist Group," said Paul Tash, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Times. He said the Times is retaining its Governing Magazine division in D.C.

Each company has a storied and distinct history covering Congress and Washington politics and policy. Since 1945, CQ has been the "publication of record" providing factual, unbiased coverage of congressional activity. In recent years, CQ has been at the forefront of developing Internet services that provide real-time intelligence on the workings of Congress.

Roll Call, founded in 1955 and acquired by the Economist Group in 1992, has been at the center of the Capitol Hill community providing a look into the people, politics and personalities that drive the legislative process. This focus on community has led to strategic expansion into trade association-based grassroots mobilization with the acquisition of Capitol Advantage in 2008.

The CQ-Roll Call Group intends to maintain each company's unique editorial voice, and thus there are no current plans to eliminate any products. In addition, the great majority of the CQ staff will join the merged organization.

Robert W. Merry, President and Editor-in-Chief of CQ for the past 12 years, will not be retained by the merged company. "As in many such instances of two companies coming together," Merry said, "one CEO inevitably becomes extraneous. In this situation, that's me." He will pursue other publishing and journalistic opportunities.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:22pm on Friday, January 30th, 2009

On January 28, 2009, Folio magazine reported that the Times Publishing Company plans to sell Congressional Quarterly:

"The Times Publishing Co. — publisher of Florida’s St. Petersburg Times newspaper — has announced that it is exploring the sale of Washington-based Congressional Quarterly.

According to Times Publishing chairman Paul Tash, the company is looking to direct its resources toward its Florida-based properties. In a statement, CQ president Robert W. Merry said “to maintain CQ’s double-digit growth, we appreciate that it’s time to bring our enterprise under the banner of an owner with national or international reach.”

Covering Congress, politics and public policy, Congressional Quarterly Inc. publishes CQ Weekly and Governing magazines, as well as the CQ Today daily newsletter."