Marsha Mercer

MARSHA D. MERCER is bureau chief of Media General News Service and a weekly columnist on national and political affairs. Since joining the bureau in 1980, she has logged well over 70,000 miles on the road, listening to what people say about their government, politicians and policies.

Mercer began her newspaper career writing bridal announcements at The Richmond News Leader. In 1976, she joined the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the Charlottesville bureau, later becoming bureau chief. She has covered every national Democratic and Republican presidential convention and New Hampshire primary since 1984. Mercer covered the White House from 1993 to 2003, when she was named chief of the Washington bureau.

The recipient of numerous state and national writing awards, Mercer won Media General's D. Tennant Bryan award for column-writing in 2006 and the D. Tennant Bryan award for feature writing in 2001.

A graduate of Stephens College in Missouri, Mercer earned a master's degree in English from the University of Virginia. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism.

Mercer is a member of the Gridiron Club, National Society of Newspaper Columnists and National Press Club.

Marsha Mercer can be contacted by e-mail or at 202-662-7670

Billy House

Billy House joined the bureau in March 2007.

House came to Media General after five years as The Arizona (Phoenix) Republic's Washington reporter. In that job, he covered John McCain and other Arizona members of Congress, traveled to several 2004 presidential primaries and debates, and broke the news that former NFL player-turned soldier Patrick Tillman was killed by friendly fire.

House previously worked at Gannett New Service as a Washington correspondent for nine New York state newspapers, and for Gannett as a state capitol reporter in Albany, N.Y. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree. He also has a law degree from the University of South Carolina and was a 1996-97 Michigan Journalism Fellow.

Billy House can be contacted by e-mail or at 202-662-7873

Sean Mussenden

Sean Mussenden joined Media General News Service in June 2005 as a national correspondent in the Washington bureau.

Mussenden came to Media General from the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel's state capital bureau in Tallahassee. During his tenure at that paper, he traveled Florida and the Southeast covering a variety of subjects – state and national politics, the Walt Disney Co., NASCAR, multiple hurricanes and the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia.

The Washington, D.C.-area native previously worked for The (Annapolis, Md.) Capital, Capital News Service, and American Journalism Review magazine. He graduated from Maryland's St. Mary's College with a bachelor's degree. He has a master's degree from the University of Maryland.

Sean Mussenden can be contacted by e-mail or at 202-662-7668