"We're always delighted to bring talented journalists back home," said Advertiser Editor Saundra Keyes in announcing Mariani-Belding's appointment. "Jeanne's professional accomplishments and her personal commitment to Hawai'i make her an ideal fit for our newsroom leadership group."

Keyes said the addition of a top editor for editorial and opinion content caps a commitment The Advertiser made several years ago to increase both the size and the impact of its opinion and commentary staff. Since 2001, the newspaper has added a writer to the editorial board and a clerk to handle reader letters and meeting scheduling. Editorial-page editor Jerry Burris has coordinated a community editorial board with rotating membership.

"We have found that the further we stretch our opinion pages, the more possibilities we see for making a difference in Hawai'i," Keyes said. "I anticipate that Jeanne and Jerry will create even more ambitious outreach efforts in the years ahead."

Mariani-Belding has worked since 1997 at the Mercury News, where she was assistant city editor, editor of the award-winning Race and Demographics team, senior editor for special projects, and deputy editor, the No. 2 position on the newspaper's opinion staff.

She previously had worked at the Los Angeles Daily News, where she was a metro reporter, assistant city editor and editorial writer and columnist; at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, where she was a reporter, and at Vista Press in San Diego County.

A Maryknoll School graduate, Mariani-Belding earned her journalism degree at Pepperdine University. In 2003, she was a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

She has held leadership positions in the Asian American Journalists Association and was a programming co-chairwoman for the 2004 UNITY Journalists of Color conference, which attracted more than 7,000 registrants. Conference speakers included President Bush and his challenger, Sen. John Kerry.

Her work has been honored by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, the California Chicano News Media Association, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and other groups.