Terry McDermott, a former national reporter at the Los Angeles Times, is one of four new CJR Encore Fellows named by the Columbia Journalism Review.

[It's] a new initiative—the first of its kind in the news industry—that will provide downsized professionals with a writing position as well as support to help them choose how best to use their experience in the years ahead. Their work will be featured in the magazine and on CJR.org over a nine-month period beginning in late October....

Terry McDermott’s career spans 30 years at eight newspapers, most recently at the Los Angeles Times, where he covered more than two dozen countries on diverse subjects: the 9/11 plot, building skyscrapers, rare blood molecules, Japanese trade restrictions, the California dream and the Alzheimer's epidemic. He is the author of Perfect Soldiers: The Hijackers - Who They Were, Why They Did It and the upcoming 101 Theory Drive: A Neuroscientist's Quest for Memory.

Release. McDermott left the Times in one of the 2008 reductions in force. Rumors abound, by the way, of a new siege of newsroom layoffs looming. Today was supposed to be the day, but some sources say managers were told the cut is on hold—temporarily.