King of the A-heds returns for WSJ

Matthew Kassel of the New York Observer writes about Barry Newman, a Wall Street Journal feature writer whose front-page stories were legendary and whose work returned to the paper this weekend for the first time after he retired in 2013.

Kassel writes, “Mr. Newman’s page one story, ‘Is the Time Ripe for Baby Bananas?,’ is a light-hearted yet seriously reported piece—as most A-Heds are—whose title pretty much sums itself up. (An ‘A-hed’ is the Journal‘s term for front page stories that take a more frivolous approach to the news, focusing on such overlooked subjects as professional cuddlers, mushroom thieves and rapping rabbis.)

“‘I have a long list of story ideas, sort of obsessional ideas, that I felt like I needed to get done,’ Mr. Newman, who turns 68 next month, told the Observer when we reached him by phone on Sunday. ‘And small bananas has been an obsession for a long time.’

“Mr. Newman said he has long enjoyed small bananas, which are overshadowed by the foot-long Cavendish. ‘I like them,’ he explained, ‘for the reasons I said in the story—they’re small and they taste better.’ In early November, he found that his local Key Food on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope was selling the small ones—the first time he’d seen them in a mainstream supermarket—and decided to do a story.

“‘I’ve been thinking about this for a while,’ Mr. Newman said. ‘I have accumulated a fat file on it, but I could never find a vehicle for that story, and I found one on my doorstep.'”