New beats on fertile ground

A friend once offered an apt observation about the Triangle: "There really is a lot going on here, behind all the trees."

This part of North Carolina's Piedmont, deceptively low-key, incubates ideas and aspiration. Opportunity is our waterfront property. People come from all over the world seeking the good life, settling into homes and apartments among, yes, all those trees.

The N&O's reporting assignments, called beats, help us discover and tell stories that reflect the character and the challenges of this dynamic place.

We cover ACC sports, politics, Southern culture, education and dozens of other topics. Every so often we drop or add assignments (we no longer have a tobacco beat; we do have a growth and newcomers beat), and recently we launched a couple of new roles.

The first is ideas, a broad new assignment for longtime books editor J. Peder Zane. The second is the business of universities, with Tim Simmons as the inaugural reporter.

An ideas beat could be a slick bar of soap in the wrong hands, but it's a natural for Zane. In nearly 11 years as books editor, the New York native built on our strong traditions in covering writers and reading with a regional and local focus.

Zane's weekly column won national and state recognition and a following among readers who appreciated its consideration of books in a larger cultural context. He served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle and edited two collections of writing.

Zane told me he plans to tap the many smart and interesting people here for stories about trends shaping the news and about "emerging ideas in a variety of fields -- especially the arts and academia -- that will shape the ways we'll think about things in the years ahead."

He'll continue his column and expand its range of subject matter. Look for his reports on Page 1 and in sections including Q, Business and A&E. (Our books pages will continue under the direction of Marcy Smith).

Likewise, Simmons is an ideal pick to cover our universities as economic engines for our state.

Simmons made his mark here as an education reporter who helped explain policy as it was hitting the classroom and the homework table.

Along with ambitious projects on early childhood education and the achievement gaps between minority and nonminority students, Simmons delivered stories that explained policy while asking pragmatic questions about its effectiveness.

He and Business Editor Mary Cornatzer see plenty to explore in universities' impact on business as well as their relationships with corporate leaders.

His beat is broad in scope, like Zane's, and his aim is simple: "I want to tell people about a part of their world that is interesting and/or important and that they didn't know about until I told them."

Reach either reporter by e-mail (peder.zane@newsobserver.com or tim.simmons@newsobserver.com ) or call 829-4500.

Executive Editor Melanie Sill can be reached at 829-8986 or melanie.sill@newsobserver.com.