Used to be Dad-The-Editor would put in a call to place Son-The-Budding-Journalist in a plum post-college position. Today, however, that quaint tradition has largely given way to the more modern brother-on-brother promotion. Witness the trend in two families of well-placed writer brothers, the Foers and the Tappers.

The Tapper Two

The brothers: Jake and Aaron

Home base: Philly

Web magazine of choice: Salon (Jake is former Washington correspondent and Aaron is current contributor)

Current gigs: Jake is reporter for VH1

Writing has appeared in: GQ, Talk, New York Times Magazine, Washington City Paper

Big books: Jake’s Body Slam: The Jesse Ventura Story (St. Martin’s, 1999), Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency (Little, Brown , 2001)

Colleges: Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins

Sensibility: pop politics

Female muse: Monica Lewinsky, whose one-time date with Jake became his claim to fame

The Foer Three

The brothers: Franklin, Jonathan, and Joshua

Home base: DC

Web magazine of choice: Slate (Franklin is former staff reporter and Joshua is current contributor)

Current gigs: Franklin is associate editor of the New Republic

Writing has appeared in: U.S. News & World Report, New York Times, Lingua Franca, Yale Review of Books

Big books: Jonathan’s Everything is Illuminated: A Novel (Houghton Mifflin, April 2002)

Colleges: Columbia, Princeton, Yale

Sensibility: pop literary

Female muse: Joyce Carol Oates, advisor to Jonathan while at Princeton