As we reported earlier today, Associated Press reporter Harry Weber is leaving the wire service for a job on the Houston Chronicle business news desk.

His goodbye email to sources and colleagues should be required reading for anyone thinking about how to depart a news organization:

I don’t know which is harder — losing 90 pounds in eight months or making an impact and being successful as a journalist for 16 years, the last 12 at the world’s largest news organization. Thanks to the encouragement, tips, guidance, patience and friendship from all of you in one way or another, I have been fortunate to do both.

As some of you already know, I will be leaving The Associated Press on Oct. 3. I’ve accepted a job with the Houston Chronicle as an energy reporter. My first day there will be Oct. 8. In the meantime, I plan to work harder than ever for AP, a news organization I will always love.

It was an extremely difficult decision from an emotional standpoint. I am sad to be leaving AP after so many great years and stories and awards.

You all have meant so much to me personally and professionally, and I truly believe that because of your support I am a better person and a better journalist today than when I started on this incredible journey in 1996, making $8 an hour at a small daily newspaper in the Boston area. I had just finished journalism school at Columbia and I thought I had the world at my feet. But it was that paper that taught me the hard-knock lessons of journalism — the greatest lesson is you have to work hard every day if you want to get ahead. It was a prominent editor at a major newspaper that told me during a career day at Columbia that I should start at a small paper. I didn’t want to believe him then, but he sure was right. That experience gave me the tools to move to a slightly larger paper, which gave me the tools to  catch on with the AP, which has led me to where I am today.

I’ve been fortunate to cover just about every beat — from legal affairs to politics to business to the environment, and some entertainment and sports. I’ve covered mergers, bankruptcies, labor disputes and too many tragedies to count. There were the Dartmouth murders, the corporate scandal at Tyco, the Shaheen-Sununu U.S. Senate race. 9/11 and the anthrax attacks. There were prosecutors and governors, members of Congress and attorney generals. Celebrities and sports figures. Presidents and vice presidents, and even a former vice president who I gave highway directions to once. Plane crashes and the US Airways splashdown in the Hudson. The Atlanta courthouse shootings. The capture and prosecution of Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph. JonBenet Ramsey. The death of Godfather of Soul James Brown. Hurricane Katrina. And, of course, the Gulf oil spill. I’ve flown in helicopters, spent significant time at sea and even, in a solemn task, sat behind a glass partition inside a prison as seven men in Georgia and Alabama took their last breath as they were executed.

I’m amazed at just how far my words have traveled thanks to the AP. I’ve traveled all over the U.S. Newspapers and TV and radio stations on six continents have published my work. I’ve been asked to be a mentor to two other staffers.

I feel like I still have plenty left in me — and thanks to the weight-loss I am a lot lighter on my feet. I still have a few goals I want to fulfill. Another hope I have is that we all keep in touch.

There are so many people I want to thank, which is why this email string is so long. I’d like to mention a few.

I want to thank Larry Laughlin and Joe Magruder for hiring me into the AP in July 2000. Thanks to Kevin Noblet, Gary Clark and Michael Giarrusso for bringing me to Atlanta as a business writer in 2002. Thanks to Barry Bedlan and Maryann Mrowca for always believing in me and giving me so many opportunities. And thanks especially to Brian Carovillano, Brad Foss, Brian Schwaner, Lisa Pane and Ron Vample. Because of Brian Carovillano and Brad, I was asked to go to New Orleans in April 2010 to cover the Gulf of Mexico rig explosion and resulting oil spill. I thought I would only be going for maybe a week. Because of Brian Schwaner, Lisa and others I ended up staying for a year. And because of Ron, the transition that has marked the last nine months for me has been easier than it would have been without his support.

I also want to thank Kristin Gazlay, Kathleen Carroll, Mike Oreskes and Mike Silverman. At a news organization so large, it would be easy to get lost in the shuffle. To be on their radar has been very rewarding and I am very thankful for their kind words over the years. Two of the most memorable emails were from Kristin after a break early in my AP career in the Dartmouth case and another one about my coverage of the airline industry. My father is especially proud of those, and still mentions them today. A special thanks to Pete Brown for improving my writing. I don’t think I ever truly gave him the credit he deserves, but I want to make sure I do now.

I will always love the AP.

One of the things I love about it is that it is truly global and essential. It’s certainly been essential to me. It introduced me to my wife. It gave me the opportunity to buy a home. It gave me financial assistance when my home was heavily damaged by an historic flood. Thanks to Hal Ritter, it even sent my wife flowers on Mother’s Day in 2010 when I couldn’t because I was on a big boat in the middle of the Gulf. I’ll never forget dialing in to a Business News staff conference call from a satellite phone on that boat and hearing the thunder of my colleagues’ clapping when they learned I was on the phone. I will always remember that boat and what it has meant to me. I also will always remember the 11 men who died in the waters nearby. And thanks to Gerald Herbert for being my comrade at sea. He is a tremendously talented photographer and an equally good friend.

These are just a few of the many memories I will carry with me in the future as I look to create more memories.

A lot of adjectives have been used to describe me over the years. The most common are “persistent,” “aggressive,” and “passionate.” To me, that’s a badge of honor, and I want to thank everyone who has ever said those words to me. The last time I got a speeding ticket was on 9/11 — rushing to the house in Portsmouth, N.H., where the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11 lived. Knocking on that door was very difficult, but his family let me in. And I will always be grateful for that.

There are other adjectives, of course. I know that in my zeal to get the story, I sometimes have turned off some people I have worked with. I’m not perfect — far from it. And I’ve tried hard to learn from those experiences. I’ve always been confident in my news judgment. But my personal judgment has sometimes been lacking. Those lessons have been valuable as well.

One thing that has always been consistent is my love for our noble profession — and, of course, my love for AP.

Harry Weber, an Associated Press reporter based in Atlanta, is leaving the wire service to cover energy for the Houston Chronicle’s business news desk.

Tony Wilbert‘s Skyline Views reports:

Weber, who covered big business, airlines and the BP oil spill for the past 10 years out of the AP’s Atlanta bureau, will depart next month to cover energy at the Houston Chronicle, according to a memo from the AP South Region Editor Lisa Marie Pane.

Harry’s a dogged reporter who gets scoop as well as any reporter. I’m sure he’ll kick ass on the best beat in Houston. He’s also a die-hard Redskins; fan, which is quite admirable these days.

Here’s the meat of her e-mail to the AP’s South Editorial staff:

“In the 12 years since Harry Weber joined the AP, he’s covered everything from the 2001 slayings of two Dartmouth professors that stunned rural northern New England to the case of Brian Nichols who escaped from a courthouse while on trial and shot and killed four people, three of them inside the courtroom.

 And who could forget the Gulf oil spill? Persuading BP to get him and Gerald Herbert on a boat to observe the effort to cap the well gave the AP a front row seat to that drama that no other media organization could come close to matching.

 He’s been tireless in pursuing the news, always striving to get it first. And now, he’s going to be taking those skills to the Houston Chronicle to cover energy — a place he spent some time at during his one-year stint on the Gulf oil spill beat.”

Associated Press business editor Hal Ritter sent out the following staff departure announcement:

Chris Kahn has decided to leave AP to take a job as editor of the credit card team at bankrate.com. Chris joined AP as an intern in the Phoenix bureau in 1999. He became a full-time reporter in the Richmond, Va., bureau in 2000 and correspondent in Roanoke in 2001. During his years in Virginia, he covered everything from federal courts to presidential campaigns to sports. 

Chris left AP for two years to be education writer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and rejoined us in Phoenix in 2006. He covered airlines and energy there before moving to New York in 2008 to be a national energy reporter in Business News.

Chris has done a great job for us. His dedication to the energy beat and teamwork have been valued and will be missed.

Please join me in wishing Chris the best in his new job. His last day with us will be Friday, Aug. 3.

The Associated Press Business News Department seeks an assistant business editor for its headquarters in New York City.

This editor will primarily manage editors who produce the AP’s financial markets and banking coverage, as well as its Money & Markets product, which appears in hundreds of newspapers and on their websites.

The job requires an experienced and accomplished editor and manager. The AP wants an editor who is highly knowledgeable about the coverage areas, has excellent news judgment and is a wordsmith, and a manager who can lead and inspire editors and reporters and help them become even better.

Business News assistant business editors work closely with the deputy business editor and business editor and must be team players. AP Business News is committed to excellence, and assistant business editors are instrumental in driving continuous improvement.

Applicants must have at least five years of high-level management experience.

To apply, contact Deputy Business Editor Kevin Shinkle at kshinkle@ap.org or go to www.ap.org.

Greg Bluestein, a reporter for the Associated Press in Atlanta, has been hired to cover business at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, business editor Matt Kempner confirmed to Talking Biz News.

He will cover commercial real estate and economic development. Bluestein starts May 30.

Bluestein is a legal affairs reporter for the Associated Press in Georgia and a member of the national law enforcement team, covering national crime and court trends.

He has played a leading role in covering every major breaking story in Georgia during the last six years, providing coverage on the legal, political, technology and environmental beats.

He covered the Georgia Legislature for five years and traveled with President Jimmy Carter, including trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic for extensive coverage of his post-presidency.

He has also been called upon to cover breaking stories across the Southeast, including five weeks covering the oil spill in New Orleans and extensive coverage of the 2010 West Virginia mine explosion, the faculty shooting at University of Alabama-Huntsville and the disastrous 2011 tornado outbreak.

Bluestein is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where he was editor of The Red & Black, the campus newspaper.

Youkyung Lee, a reporter who has covered technology, business and politics in South Korea and for overseas publications, has been named technology writer in Seoul for The Associated Press.

Stephen Wright, the AP’s Asia business editor, made the announcement Wednesday.

An AP story states, “Lee has been a reporter for the English language news service of South Korea’s national news agency Yonhap for the past four years, where she covered consumer technology and the economy. She has worked as a translator for state television and a special correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, reporting on the protests over U.S. beef exports to South Korea and a North Korean spy trial among other topical issues.

Didi Tang, a reporter who has covered business and education in Missouri, has been named a correspondent in Beijing for The Associated Press.

An AP story states, “A China-born U.S. citizen, Tang, 36, has been a newspaper reporter for a decade in Missouri, most recently for the Springfield News-Leader, where she covered education issues. She also worked as a correspondent for USA Today, writing about the tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri, last year and other events in the Midwest.

“At the News-Leader, her investigative reporting about spending at Missouri State University played a role in the resignation of the school’s provost. She also won Missouri Press Association awards for her business coverage.

“After graduating from Beijing Foreign Studies University, Tang attended journalism school at the University of Missouri.”

Read more here.

Associated Press business editor Hal Ritter made the following staff announcement Tuesday afternoon:

After an 18-year run that started as an editorial assistant in AP’s Trenton bureau, Assistant Business Editor Donna Weston is leaving us for a job at Bloomberg Industries. Donna will be an editor in this data division of Bloomberg that publishes research from in-house analysts. Bloomberg Industries is based in Princeton.

For those who don’t know Donna’s AP history: She was promoted to newswoman six months after joining AP in 1994. She came to Business News in New York in 1998 as a general assignment reporter. She was later night supe and day supe before being promoted to assistant business editor in September 2001.

Since 2008, Donna has overseen the retailing and health care teams and our spot desk operation. She has been instrumental, especially, in helping us produce a strong product for APFN customers. Most recently, she developed the spot desk reorganization that went into effect Monday.

Donna’s last day will be Friday, Feb. 17. Details to come on a sendoff.

In the meantime, please join me in wishing her the very best in her new job.