SND/Update

Janet Michaud, Christopher Meighan and Susana Sanchez move to the Washington Post. Memo follows:

We are delighted to announce that three top-notch visual journalists will be joining The Post:

Janet Michaud will become our features design director. She’ll be the creative partner of art directors on the fourth-floor design desk and the weekly section editors. And, of course, she’ll do lots of hands-on design, filling in for designers who are out, as well as playing a key role in special projects. Janet comes to her new role uniquely qualified to help our features sections continue to increase their value to readers through clear, content-based presentation. For the past six years, she’s been an art director at TIME magazine. At the magazine, Janet art directed an array of projects, from 30-page special cover packages to breaking news stories to the magazine’s annual Year in Pictures feature. Before coming to TIME, she was a pioneer in the newspaper design world. At the Boston Globe, Janet brought visual storytelling to the paper’s Sports section, designing pages that combined photos, text and graphics to explain the news. Her work at the Globe paved the way for more information-based design on sports pages, which is still reflected today in many papers, including our own.

Christopher Meighan will become the primary cover designer of Style’s daily sections. He’ll step into the position held by Jim Forrest, who has done the job with such grace for much of Style’s existence. Chris has been a designer at the San Diego Union-Tribune for 10 years. He began in sports, did stints designing A1 and, for the last five years, has been the primary art director of the paper’s features sections. In that role, Chris dealt simultaneously with a variety of disparate content, ranging from entertainment to science to food. This background is great preparation for Style, which demands a versatile editor who’s able to present the section’s unique mix of stories.

Susana Sanchez will join Chris on Style’s design team. She will fill a position that’s been covered with much expertise and patience by a rotating group of news editors. Now, the News Desk will be able to fully focus on a busy news year. Susie arrives from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where she was features design editor, in charge of five other designers. She also did section redesigns, illustrations and contributed to special projects. Before the Sun-Sentinel, Susie worked as a news artist for the San Gabriel Valley papers in California.

Mike Keegan / Dennis Brack