James Wesley Coldsmith, former editor and publisher of newspapers in Alexandria, Va., died Saturday at his home of leukemia. He was 60. Coldsmith was an editor or publisher of newspapers in the northern Virginia city from the 1960s through the 1980s and ran twice for the city council as a Republican. He expanded an advertising flyer into what became The Journal group of newspapers in the Virginia and Maryland suburbs near Washington. Coldsmith earlier had been editor and publisher of the Alexandria Port Packet and the Alexandria Gazette. Born in Parsons, Kan., Coldsmith worked for The Associated Press in Tokyo, Denver and Chicago, before moving to Virginia in 1966. Earlier, he served in the Army and was news editor of the Stars and Stripes in Tokyo.
