Coll, a writer for the New Yorker and a former Washington Post managing editor, takes over next month as the new head of the nonpartisan public policy institute. He's following the footsteps of other journalists turned policy wonks, such as Walter Isaacson, the former Time magazine editor who runs the Aspen Institute, and Strobe Talbott, a former Time journalist who was Bill Clinton's deputy secretary of State and now presides over the Brookings Institution.

Q. How did you come to take the job?

A. It seemed a little bit hard to get my mind around initially. I had been very happy just writing, but I did miss collaborating as I had done at the Post. I started to think that I could collaborate with people at New America who could also teach me something. After a couple of weeks' thought I said yes.

Q. What are the foundation's successes?

A. One of the biggest is its ability to attract and hold talent. It doesn't start with an ideology; it's not connected to the rhythms of political parties; and it's very much not a parking place for people rotating in and out of government.

Q. What do you plan to change?

A. The most important initial priority I have is to improve the way the foundation communicates -- and uses new media. I think that the era of the op-ed-driven think tank is fading, and that the model of what will replace it isn't clear yet.

Q. What media strategies will you pursue?

A. This isn't just a question of redesigning the home page: It's also a question of thinking about the characteristics of the Web and how they could change New America's core work, for example by using the Web site's ability to instantly create global communities that could start to shape the ideas that New America generates.

Q. What kind of people would make up those global communities?

A. There are already some real innovators -- for example, New America's Steven Clemons at The Washington Note. A more scholarly example is Jeffrey Lewis' blog armscontrolwonk.

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