The Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau was founded in 1974. Since then, it has grown to roughly 30 staffers who serve the 17 daily Cox newspapers from Washington, domestic bureaus in New York and on the West Coast, as well as foreign bureaus in Baghdad, Beijing, London, Mexico City, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Bureau chief Andy Alexander reports to Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers.

The mission of the bureau is simple: We help the Cox newspapers serve their readers. We do that by providing news coverage that our papers, individually or collectively, want.

Prior to 1974, Washington correspondents for various Cox newspapers maintained separate offices in the nation’s capital. When they were consolidated that year, four “national” reporters were hired to write stories of broad interest to all the Cox papers, thus supplementing the work of the “regional” reporters who provided localized coverage for their Cox newspapers in Georgia, Ohio, Texas and Florida.

In the early 1980s, Cox began opening foreign bureaus. Beginning with a single bureau in Rome, others were subsequently opened in Mexico City, Moscow, London, Jerusalem, Tokyo and the Caribbean. As the focus of foreign news has shifted in various parts of the world, Cox bureaus have relocated. In addition to the current line-up of foreign bureaus, Cox has added accredited, non-staff correspondents in Moscow, London and Jerusalem, as well as a network of stringers around the globe. The entire foreign news operation is managed from the Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau.

And in the late 1990s, bureaus were added in New York and the West Coast. During this same period, the Washington bureau moved to its current location near the U.S. Capitol and began sharing space with the Cox Broadcasting Washington Bureau, which provides news coverage for Cox-owned television and radio stations throughout the United States. Although operated separately, the two bureaus cooperate journalistically. 

Over the years, Cox Newspapers correspondents have won or shared in virtually every major American journalism award, including the Pulitzer Prize. The staff currently includes three Pulitzer winners. Stories written by Cox correspondents are distributed via The New York Times News service to roughly 650 additional newspapers worldwide with a combined daily circulation of about 35 million.