Search Tips | Editing Guide

Eric Pianin promised his parents he would devote his freshman year at MSU to his studies and avoid distracting activities. But the allure of The State News proved too great.The year was 1964, the Spartans were a Big Ten powerhouse, and Pianin was an excited cub reporter.

Practically overnight, The State News became the focus of his life. Jim Spaniolo, who started at the paper the same week, became a lifelong friend, despite their rivalry. As sophomores, they were catapulted into senior editing jobs; Pianin became the sports editor and later managing editor and executive editor.

After graduate school at Columbia, Pianin's career took him to the Louisville Times, the Minneapolis Star, the Washington bureau of the Minneapolis Tribune and, in the fall of 1981, The Washington Post, where he spent the next 25 years as a reporter and editor. He covered D.C. politics and government and became an assistant city editor. After moving to the National staff in 1990, he became the paper's chief budget and economics reporter on Capitol Hill. He took part in the 1992 presidential campaign coverage and covered Congress finding time to co-author a book: ‚"Mirage: Why Neither Democrats Nor Republicans Can Balance the Budget, End the Deficit and Satisfy the Public." In late 2000, Pianin became the paper's environmental reporter. He was part of the Post's team that investigated the Columbia space shuttle disaster, and later became the paper's first homeland security reporter. He spent several years on the National Desk before leaving the Post in March to become senior political editor of washingtonpost.com.

Pianin lives in Washington with his wife, Laurie, and children Alix, 18, and Stephen, 13.(as of 2007)