When you’re good, age doesn’t matter. [are some folks jealous?]

When Washingtonian magazine recently profiled the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein, the story contained a tidbit that ricocheted around the Post newsroom: Klein has his own assistant.

Good for him.

Klein is hardly alone. Reflecting a mix of desperation and determination to reinvent themselves for a new media era, legacy publications are recruiting and lavishly rewarding a new breed of journalists. They offer an edgy style and expertise in a particular field, but have never spent a day covering cops or courts or county boards — traditionally the rungs of the ladder all reporters had to climb.

Noteworthy: Congressman Aaron Schock, who’s 28, has a few assistants. Or so we’re told.