Robert Whitcomb is vice president and editorial-page editor of The Providence Journal. Before joining The Providence Journal, he was the financial editor of the International Herald Tribune, based in Paris; an editor and writer for The Wall Street Journal in New York; and a writer for The Boston Herald Traveler and the News Journal, in Wilmington, Del. He has also contributed to Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Weekly Standard, the New York Times, and Cape Business Magazine, among many other publications. Mr. Whitcomb has twice won the first prize from the Associated Press in the AP’s annual press awards for New England for editorial writing. He is also the co-author of “Cape Wind: Celebrity, Energy, Class, Politics, and a Valiant Battle for Unobstructed Ocean Views on Nantucket Sound.”

Mr. Whitcomb is a longtime observer of the Middle East. Currently, he is member secretary of the Aga Khan University’s Media Thinking Group, charged with finding ways to improve quality of journalism in the Developing World, especially Africa and South Asia.