The successful life pursuits of ex-newspaper people

Bill Lucey was laid off in 2008 as a senior news researcher at the Tribune Company's South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has newly launched a blog called Newspaper Alum that he says will tell the stories "of those who have left U.S. daily newspapers and have blazed a new path for themselves outside of the newsroom."

What it won't be, he says, is a chronicle of "firings, layoffs, dwindling circulation figures, and embarrassing headlines."

He starts with Neil Lewis, a New York Times correspondent who took a buyout three years ago.

Since 2011, Lewis has been the executive director of a nongovernmental, nonpartisan task force investigating the U.S. treatment of detainees since 9/11. According to Lewis, the 13-member task force consists of two former federal judges, a former U.S. ambassadors to the UN, two former members of Congress, a former Under Secretary of State, a former FBI director, and two former generals who will issue a report in January, 2013....

Despite a full plate of activities to keep him busy, Lewis still manages to write on issues near and dear to his heart. In the January/February (2012) issue of the Columbia Journalism Review he took a hard look at The New York Times’ coverage of Israel over the decades, how it's changed, while examining the sensitive issue of the fractious relationship of many Jews -- typically strong supporters of Israel -- to the Times, including an examination of the Times Sulzberger family's own sometimes ambiguous Jewish heritage. Lewis tells me his article sparked lots of reaction ``from both sides of the issue, and almost none of it friendly.’’

Speaking of new pursuits: Zester Daily, the food website launched by former LA Times writer and editor Corie Brown and partners, has relaunched with more contributors and a focus on "more provocative stories from the front lines of our changing food culture." A new advisory board includes Barbara Fairchild, the former editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit; Marjorie Miller, AP's editor for Latin America and the Caribbean; Rob Eshman, publisher, editor-in-chief and food columnist at The Jewish Journal; and Molly O'Neill, the former New York Times food columnist.