CJR masthead: a step closer to getting it right

The masthead in the print edition of the July/August 2005 issue of Columbia Journalism Review is available (in a poor quality scan) here.

The good news is that CJR kept its commitment (which it delivered seemingly under heat) to put Victor Navasky on the masthead as chairman. (As I wrote earlier, Navasky still does not appear on the online version of the masthead.)

The bad news is that they stuck him in the wrong place. If the editorial and publishing sides of CJR both answer to Navasky--as they apparently do--, then why does he appear at the bottom of the masthead?

To be charitable to CJR, is it because Navasky's role has generally not been very hands on, especially on the editorial side? Perhaps, but then CJR needs to explain why the convention is different for Columbia Journalism School dean Nicholas Lemann, whose name appears at the very top of the masthead.

Or can Navasky's name at the bottom of the list be better explained as a remnant of the "guilty knowledge" that Brenda Ross suggested was the impetus for CJR to hide Navasky's role in the first place?

I leave it to the reader to decide.