Washington Post Polling Chief to Join Pew Research

Jon Cohen, who has led the Washington Post's (WaPo) polling operation Capital Insight for the past seven years, is leaving to join the Pew Research Center in the newly created role of Vice President of Research.

Earlier this year, the newspaper spun off the polling arm, which under the name Capital Insight continues to conduct all the Post's polling, but is independent from the paper's newsroom and advertising departments.

Cohen (pictured), who before the spin-off had served as the Post's Polling Director and Polling Editor since 2006, is currently the new company's General Manager and Director of Polling. In addition, he has recently served as Communications Chair of AAPOR, and currently serves on the organization's task force on emerging technologies. Before joining WaPo, Cohen was Assistant Polling Director at ABC News in New York and Associate Survey Director at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco.

He will remain in his current role until September 5, and until then will continue to work closely with Post editors and reporters on all WaPo polls, including those conducted in partnership with ABC News, the Kaiser Family Foundation and with his future employer, the Pew Research Center. In an e-mail to staff, Post Editor Marty Baron said of Cohen's departure: 'Pew has made a good choice, and we suffer a great loss.'

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan 'fact tank' that conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. In his new role, Cohen will team up with Pew Research Center President Alan Murray and VP Elizabeth Gross in sharing management responsibility for the center as a whole, and Cohen will also take on vetting responsibility for all the Center's research.

Pew will also take the opportunity to reshuffle its senior team: Paul Taylor will be taking on a new role as Executive Vice President, Special Projects; Amy Mitchel becomes Director of Journalism Research; and Mark Lopez becomes Director of Hispanic Research.

Web sites: www.capinsight.com and www.pewresearch.org .