Roll Call is a newspaper and website published in Washington, D.C., United States, when the United States Congress is in session, reporting news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of congressional elections across the country.

Roll Call
TypePeriodical newspaper
FormatNewspaper
Owner(s)FiscalNote
Founder(s)Sid Yudain
EditorEd Timms
FoundedJune 16, 1955
Political alignmentNonpartisan
LanguageAmerican English
Headquarters1625 Eye Street NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC 20006
CountryUnited States
Circulation30,786 (June 2017)
OCLC number44314138
Websiterollcall.com
Senator Tim Wirth reading an issue of Roll Call in 1991

Roll Call is the flagship publication of CQ Roll Call, which also operates: CQ (formerly Congressional Quarterly), publisher of a subscriber-based service for daily and weekly news about Congress and politics, as well as a weekly magazine. Roll Call's regular columnists are Walter Shapiro, Mary C. Curtis, Patricia Murphy, and Stuart Rothenberg.

History

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Roll Call was founded in 1955 by Sid Yudain, a press secretary to Congressman Al Morano (R-Conn.).[1][2] The inaugural issue of the newspaper was published on June 16, 1955, with an initial printing of 10,000 copies.[3] Richard Nixon, then Vice President of the United States, wrote a letter to Yudain congratulating him on the new venture. Nixon's letter ran on the front page of the inaugural issue.

In 1986, Yudain sold Roll Call to Arthur Levitt, who was serving as the chairman of the American Stock Exchange at the time of the sale.[3] Yudain continued to work as a columnist at Roll Call after the sale.[3]

The Economist Group acquired Roll Call in 1993.[4] Roll Call merged with CQ in 2009 after the latter company was purchased by The Economist Group.[5]

In July 2018, a deal was announced for CQ Roll Call to be acquired by FiscalNote.[6]

Brand franchises

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"Heard on the Hill"

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In January 1988, Roll Call launched the "Heard on the Hill" column, which covers the intrigue of life and work in and around Capitol Hill. Alex Gangitano wrote Heard on the Hill from 2014 to 2018 before leaving to cover lobbying for The Hill.[7] On 30 April 2019, Roll Call announced the current Heard on the Hill writing team of Clyde McGrady and Kathryn Lyons.[8]

Congressional Baseball Game

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In 1962, Roll Call began sponsoring the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. In 1965, the first Roll Call Trophy was awarded—to the Republican team, which was the first team to win three games since Roll Call began its sponsorship. Since then, a new trophy has been awarded to the next team that wins three games (over the next three, four, or five years), following the year in which the most recent trophy was awarded. Roll Call also sponsors the Congressional Baseball Hall of Fame.

Notable Roll Call staff

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  • Kathryn Lyons, Heard on the Hill reporter
  • Camila Dechalus, Immigration Reporter[9]
  • Rebecca Adams, Senior Editor[10]
  • Megan Scully, Senior Editor
  • Ed Timms, Investigations Editor
  • Herb Jackson, Politics Editor[11]
  • Jason Dick, Deputy Editor
  • Lindsey Gilbert, Deputy Editor
  • Lindsey McPherson, Senior Writer[12][13]
  • Niels Lesniewski, Senior Writer
  • John M. Donnelly, Senior Writer
  • Jennifer Shutt, Budget and Appropriations Reporter
  • Bridget Bowman, Politics Reporter
  • Simone Pathé, Politics Reporter
  • Stephanie Akin, Politics Reporter
  • Kate Ackley, Lobbying Reporter[14]

Notable Roll Call alumni

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Political Theater Podcast

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Political Theater Podcast is a Roll Call podcast hosted by Jason Dick.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Weber, Bruce (October 26, 2013). "Sid Yudain, 90, Dies; Created Congress's Community Newspaper". The New York Times. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  2. ^ Schudel, Matt (October 22, 2013). "Sid Yudain, founder of Roll Call, dies at 90". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Rapp, David (October 21, 2013). "Roll Call Founder Sid Yudain Dies at 90". Roll Call. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  4. ^ Levitt Set To Sell Stake In Roll Call; SEC Pick Said Talking With the Economist
  5. ^ The Guardian, "The Economist Group Buys Congressional Quarterly", July 22, 2009
  6. ^ Calderone, Michael (July 25, 2018). "Economist Group to sell CQ Roll Call to FiscalNote". Politico.
  7. ^ Gangitano, Alex. "Lobbying Reporter". The Hill. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  8. ^ McKinless, Thomas (April 29, 2019). "Meet Roll Call's New Heard on the Hill Reporters". Roll Call.
  9. ^ "Hurricane Maria". C-SPAN. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  10. ^ Adams, Rebecca. "Energy Legislation". C-SPAN. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  11. ^ Lippmann, Daniel. "Playbook PM: Trump heading to the border Thursday". Politico.
  12. ^ Scanlan, Bill. "Research and Development Tax Credit Legislation". C-SPAN. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  13. ^ Swain, Susan. "Newsmakers with Rep Mark Walker and Roll Call's Lindsey McPherson". C-SPAN Newsmakers. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  14. ^ Ackley, Kate (October 23, 2017). "The Rise of Women Political Donors in the Age of Trump". CQ. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  15. ^ Malone Kircher, Madison (July 25, 2016). "The DNC Email Leak Has a Viral Hero: Pablo". New York. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  16. ^ Moore, Jack (July 24, 2016). "Politics Working at the DNC Sounds Very Cool (Except Not at All)". GQ. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  17. ^ Ohlheiser, Abby. "What to expect when a WikiLeaks dump turns you into an Internet folk hero". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  18. ^ Velickovich, Alexa (July 15, 2021). "Behind the Byline: Katherine Tully-McManus". Politico. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  19. ^ Dick, Jason (December 27, 2018). "The Most Listenable Political Theater Podcasts of 2018". Roll Call. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
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