David McHugh, who as business editor in London oversaw The Associated Press‘ coverage of the recession and debt crisis in Europe since 2007, has been named Europe economics writer for the news service.

The appointment was announced Tuesday by John Daniszewski, senior managing editor overseeing international news and photos.

In his new role, McHugh will be based in Frankfurt, covering the debt crisis threatening the shared euro currency and the role played by Germany, Europe’s largest economy.

“Dave McHugh is an accomplished writer who understands European business news,” Daniszewski said. “His prior experience in Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom will give him a continent-wide perspective on the European business scene and one of the world’s most important economic engines.”

“Dave’s return to Frankfurt, home of the European Central Bank, also positions the AP for even stronger coverage in 2011 of the European debt crisis,” said Hal Ritter, the AP’s business editor.

For the past three years, McHugh has served as Europe business editor at AP’s regional editing desk in London, assigning and editing stories on the euro crisis and the global financial and economic turmoil.

Read more here.

Associated Press business editor Hal Ritter announced Monday the following two business journalists had joined the staff:

Ellen Gibson joins us today as a retailing reporter. Ellen comes from Bloomberg News where she covered health. Before that, she worked at Business Week magazine, which Bloomberg bought in 2009. Before Business Week, she was an editor at The Princeton Review, where she researched, wrote and edited books for students in kindergarten through college. She also taught English as a second language at the Ruri Yi Academy in Baltimore.

Ellen has a bachelor’s in English literature from the University of Maryland and is on track to receive a master’s in developmental psychology from Columbia in December. Ellen’s addition to the retailing team will help us continue to elevate coverage of one of the biggest stories: the American consumer.

Francesca Levy joins us tomorrow as a Money & Markets reporter. Francesca has covered real estate and personal finance for Forbes magazine and Forbes.com since August 2008. Before that, she worked for The Deal and covered mergers and acquisitions. While in college, she had internships at Business Week and the New York Press and worked for Newsweek On Air.

Francesca received a bachelor’s degree from the Eugene Lang College, New School for Social Research and a master’s from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Her arrival finally gets the M&M team back to full strength as we push beyond M&M’s core print strength to online and tablet audiences.

Associated Press business editor Hal Ritter made the following announcement to the staff on Wednesday afternoon:

Lauren LaCapra will be rejoining the AP as a Money & Markets reporter. Lauren left Business News in 2008 for TheStreet.com where she has been a reporter covering institutions ranging from commercial and investment banks to private equity firms and hedge funds. She also writes investing and personal finance stories. She came here in 2007 as a reporter on the old APFN staff and covered the energy and airline industries. Before that, she was an informational graphics coordinator for The Wall Street Journal. Her job was to create graphics about the economy and other topics that presented complicated data in a way that was visually interesting and easy to understand. All of that experience is a great fit with M&M.

Lauren earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Hofstra University in 2005. She starts Oct. 20.

Lauren’s arrival will finally get the M&M reporting team back to full strength. Combined with Joyce’s new role as editor and Jenni Sohn’s return part time from maternity leave as an M&M artist, we’ll be able to push ahead on the goals of improving the daily print product, expanding M&M online and developing a product for the tablet market.

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Associated Press business editor Hal Ritter sent out the following announcement to the staff on Thursday afternoon:

Joyce Rosenberg becomes Money & Markets editor. Joyce has been filling in as M&M editor the past six weeks and has decided she wants to do the job permanently as much as we want her to. Joyce’s move to the Upper East Side of the newsroom is a great move for us for a lot of reasons. Among them: Her financial knowledge, editing skills and energy will provide a big boost to the M&M staff. Joyce’s knowledge of you and how Business News operates will enable her to work the newsroom and get everyone working for M&M, as appropriate. That’s an M&M goal we’ve fallen short of achieving. Joyce’s move also will aid efforts to have the financial markets, personal finance and M&M teams work together more.

For newcomers who don’t know Joyce well, she has been with the AP for 33 years, and in Business News for 24. She has covered retailing, mergers and markets as a reporter. She has been a supervisor and manager for more than 15 years. She also writes Small Talk, the AP’s small business column. Her bachelor’s degree from Baruch College is in journalism, and she has a law degree from Brooklyn Law School. She also is a New York State-licensed psychoanalyst. And, for those who somehow don’t know this, she has three Siamese cats.

The M&M editor posting has been changed to financial markets editor and a search begun. If you think you know someone with the experience and skills to lead the markets team, please let us know. 

Paul Wiseman joins us as an economics reporter in Washington. Paul comes from USA Today where he is the newspaper’s lead reporter covering the U.S. economy. Paul joined the newspaper in 1990 as a reporter in the Money section. His first eight years, he was mostly a financial markets and economics reporter, although he spent two years as autos editor. In 1998, he moved to the newspaper’s Hong Kong bureau to report business, financial and economic stories across Asia. After Sept. 11, Paul began regular rotations from Hong Kong to Afghanistan and Iraq to cover those wars. He returned to the U.S. last year.

Before joining USA Today, Paul worked for Gannett newspapers in Guam, Indiana and New Jersey. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University.

Paul’s addition to the economy team will help us continue to elevate our coverage of the biggest story of our careers. After two years of financial meltdown and Great Recession, this story only gets bigger — and better to cover. Paul starts Oct. 18. 

Sharon Carty joins us as an autos writer in Detroit. Sharon has been covering the auto industry since 2002. She has been at USA Today since 2004 and is the newspaper’s lead reporter on U.S. automakers. She also is a regular contributor to the newspaper’s popular Drive On blog. Sharon started covering the industry while at Dow Jones Newswires, which she joined as a copy editor in 2001. Before Dow Jones, she worked at Gannett’s Courier News/Home News Tribune newspapers in central New Jersey. She started her career at The Staten Island Advance.

Sharon was a double major in journalism and political science at Rutgers University and has participated in journalism fellowship programs in South Korea and India.

Sharon’s addition to our autos team will allow us to ramp up coverage even more of a global industry undergoing sweeping change. We want more reader-focused stories aimed at car buyers, investors and anyone who loves a good business story. Sharon starts Oct. 18.

Dana Wollman joins the technology team as a spot news reporter. Dana has worked at Laptop magazine since 2007. She has written extensively about the consumer technology industry, and her duties have included a monthly column on emerging technologies. She has written many product reviews – experience that will enhance an AP franchise. She also has been a regular contributor on technology trends to AOL’s popular women’s blog, Lemondrop.com.

Dana has a bachelor’s degree in English from Wesleyan University. She starts Oct. 19.

Associated Press business editor Hal Ritter made the following hiring announcement to the staff:

Jonathan Fahey joined the Associated Press on Monday as an energy reporter in New York on Monday. Jon joined Forbes magazine in 2000 and had jobs as staff writer, senior reporter and associate editor. He covered energy and energy technology and wrote two blogs for Forbes.com: ‘Out of the Labs,’ which profiled basic research in academic and industrial labs and ‘The Energy Source,’ which examined energy issues. Before Forbes, Jon was a reporter at the Concord Monitor, where he covered local and state politics, crime, the environment and education. Before becoming a journalist, Jon was a business consultant for Peterson Consulting and worked at auction house Christie’s in the new media and legal departments. Jon graduated from Connecticut College in 1992 with a degree in English arts.

David Randall joins us Sept. 27 as a financial markets reporter in New York. David was formerly a staff writer and senior reporter at Forbes magazine. Most recently, he was Forbes’ lead investment writer. Before Forbes, David was a stringer for the New York Times and worked at Facts on File as an assistant editor. He graduated from the University of California, Riverside, in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in English. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from New York University in 2006.

The Associated Press is looking for an  editor to lead its Money & Markets product at its New York headquarters.

The wire service’s ad states, “Money and Markets is a graphics-rich investing and personal finance product. It appears in hundreds of newspapers and its Web presence is being expanded. The content makes heavy use of explanatory graphics and design. The goal of Money & Markets is to analyze markets news and trends to help long-term investors make decisions.

“This position requires an aggressive editor, who understands how financial markets work and has the skills, experience and vision to take charge and improve this critical product. The candidate also will play a significant role in the AP’s overall coverage of the global financial markets.

“The candidate must be able to effectively manage a staff of reporters and graphic artists. Applicants must have at least 5 years of management experience.”

Read more here.