New York, October 26, 2004—Paul Steiger, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and a vice president of Dow Jones & Company, has been elected vice chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the organization announced today.

"Paul Steiger is one of America's most respected editors," said David Laventhol, chairman of CPJ's board of directors. "His additional responsibilities at CPJ will strengthen the cause of press freedom everywhere."

Under Steiger's leadership, The Wall Street Journal's reporters and editors have won 13 Pulitzer Prizes. He first joined The Journal in 1966 as a reporter in the San Francisco bureau, moving in 1968 to the Los Angeles Times, where he spent 15 years as a reporter and editor. Steiger rejoined The Journal in 1983 as an assistant managing editor, becoming deputy managing editor two years later, and managing editor in June 1991. He also oversees The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Asian Wall Street Journal.

Steiger has been honored by his peers with numerous awards, including the first American Society of Newspaper Editors' Leadership Award in 2002; the 2002 Columbia Journalism Award, which recognizes a "singular journalistic performance in the public interest;" and the 2001 George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award from the National Press Foundation. A Yale University alumnus, he was elected to the Pulitzer Prize board in 1999, and joined the CPJ board last year.

The CPJ board elected Steiger to the leadership post at its meeting October 21. CPJ is a New York–based independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to promote press freedom by fighting for the rights of journalists worldwide to report the news freely, without fear of reprisal.