During the same three-month period, Mr. Grant just missed being among the top 50 Wall Street Journal reporters for accumulating Front Page “byline points.”  On an unweighted, absolute byline count basis, Mr. Grant’s Front Page byline count ranked below only 24 other reporters at the paper

For the seven-month period, October 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007, Mr. Grant’s Page One weighted “byline points” ranked behind 53 other Journal reporters.  His total byline counts for the seven months, both weighted and absolute, did not qualify him among the top 75 reporters at the paper.

One way to interpret these numbers is that while Mr. Grant – who doubles as Deputy Technology Editor -- is not one of the paper’s star reporters – he is impressive in his ability to serve as a player/coach.  It is further worth observing that a reporter’s initiative alone is not sufficient to ensure Front Page placement.  The nature of a journalist’s beat – and how newsworthy it is of late – also plays a large role in who rises to the very top of the byline rankings.