Tag Archives: Job changes
Seattle biz reporter leaves paper
by Chris Roush
Puget Sound Business Journal staff writer Greg Lamm, who last year won a national Sigma Delta Chi journalism award for “Other people’s money,” a series of in-depth stories about Seattle financier Darren Berg, who was convicted of fraud and money laundering, has left the paper, Talking Biz News has learned.
Lamm covered banking and finance for the American City Business Journals paper. A replacement has not been named.
He left the paper on good terms and would be welcomed back.
“I have left the Puget Sound Business Journal to pursue freelancing projects and some longer-form non-fiction writing projects,” said Lamm in an email to Talking Biz News. “Mostly, I am taking the summer off to spend with my son, and launching into full-time freelancing this fall. No set topics, but I suspect I will be focuses on business writing.”
Lamm joined the paper in January 2004. He previously was a city editor of the Skagit Valley Herald in Washington state and the Leesburg Daily Commercial in Florida. He was also a reporter for the Tampa Tribune for four years. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and the University of Maryland.
Lamm received the national Sigma Delta Chi Award for non-deadline reporting by nondaily publications.
Buyouts offered to WSJ/Dow Jones journalists
by Chris Roush
A number of reporters who work for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires have been offered buyouts earlier this week, Talking Biz News has confirmed.
One staffer said that they were given one week to decide.
A staffer described the buyouts as part of the company’s continuing efforts to integrate its Journal and Newswires operations. While a spokeswoman characterized the buyout offer as being part of the company’s normal course of business, a staffer said, “I don’t think so.”
“As ever, we are focused on maintaining the Journal’s high standard of excellence while also operating efficiently and profitably,” said a Dow Jones spokeswoman. “We continue to ensure we have the right reporting and editing resources for the task. Buyouts have long been an option for staff.”
A staffer said that layoffs are likely if enough staffers do not take the offer.
The Journal and Dow Jones Newswires are part of News Corp., which is in the process of splitting into two. The newspapers will constitute the bulk of one company, while the entertainment and television properties will constitute another.
Some of the other newspapers in News Corp. have also been decreasing staff recently.
WSJ names editor, deputy editor of news operations
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker sent out the following staff promotions on Wednesday:
I’m delighted to announce two important leadership positions for the newly combined newsroom: Alan Anspaugh is appointed Editor, News Operations, and Chaz Repak is appointed Deputy Editor, News Operations.
In their new roles, Al and Chaz will cooperate closely on all newsroom budget issues and on budget-related staffing matters. Al will take the lead on handling U.S. staffing and financial questions as well as vendor issues, contracts and capital spending. Chaz will take the lead on international budgets and staffing, as well as on real estate and facilities.
Al is a Wall Street Journal veteran and has worked in New York, Brussels, Orlando and Dallas. He’s led News’s Market Data Group, Production’s Page Makeup Group and was managing editor of the International WSJ editions’ unified Overseas Copy Desk. Most recently, he was Assistant Managing Editor and led the Journal’s news operations dealing with budgets, salaries, contracts and content vendors. He started as a news assistant 31 years ago.
Chaz is a a long-time Newswires manager. He most recently served as Editor, Newswires Operations, serving as the Newswires’ key liaison with Human Resources, Finance and Real Estate/Facilities, and working with Technology. He was previously the wires’ operations editor for North and South America, and for Asia-Pacific during his stint in Singapore from 1997 to 2003. He joined Dow Jones in 1992 and later served as a copy editor in New York and an assistant news editor on the Asia-Pacific copy desk in Singapore. He compiled the second edition of the Newswires stylebook in 1999.
Al will report to me. Chaz will report to Al.
NYTimes biz news desk hires two new reporters from FT
by Chris Roush
New York Times business editor Dean Murphy and an editor for Dealbook Jeffrey Cane sent out the following staff hire announcement:
Great news from the Finance/DealBook cluster: We will be adding two new reporters this summer, both from The Financial Times, as we replenish our ranks — and then some — in our continued mission to offer our readers the smartest and most insightful Wall Street coverage around.
We’re pleased to introduce our newest colleagues:
David Gelles, who has been a formidable competitor as the FT’s New York-based reporter covering mergers and acquisitions. David first caught Andrew Ross Sorkin‘s eye for his many scoops, and his smart analysis of big corporate deals. But David, who has been at the FT for five years, has broad experience beyond mergers and acquisitions. He spent two years covering technology from San Francisco, and was also the paper’s U.S. media and marketing correspondent. He has won various awards, including a SABEW for a FT Weekend Magazine piece based on a jailhouse interview with Bernie Madoff.
In his earlier years as a freelancer, David wrote for a host of prominent publications, including a piece for our own Home section — “Down and Dirty” — on the earthen floor movement (people who prefer dirt over hardwood or carpeting) and a piece on mountain unicycling for Sports.
David will spend the summer finishing a book that charts the impact of Eastern wisdom — meditation, yoga and more — on Western business, before starting here after Labor Day. He studied philosophy at Boston University as an undergraduate, and journalism as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he helped develop a program in entrepreneurial journalism. As for that book on Eastern wisdom? He also studied Buddhism in Bodh Gaya, India.
Alexandra Stevenson, who is a London-based reporter for the FT covering European markets. Alex started at the FT three years ago as a fellow in the paper’s South Asia bureau in New Delhi. She has been a writer for “beyondbrics,” the paper’s emerging markets blog, and has been a companies beat reporter in London.
A Canadian who was born in the United States, Alex has a special interest in China, where she studied at Peking University and worked at the now-defunct Asia Weekly Magazine and as a freelancer for various broadcast outlets. In the category of lessons-learned-working-for-an-authoritarian-regime: During a brief stint with China Radio International — the state broadcaster — she recorded a voice-over for a report on the financial crisis that played at the 2009 National Party Congress. But when she wanted to question party officials about building standards on the anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake, she was unceremoniously sidelined.
Alex has a bachelor’s in political science from McGill University in Montreal, and also studied Mandarin at Liaoning Normal University in Dalian, China. She will move to New York later this summer.
WNYC names Zomorodi as ME of New Tech City
by Chris Roush
WNYC announced Tuesday that Manoush Zomorodi will become managing editor of New Tech City, currently a weekly podcast and segment featured on Morning Edition that explores innovation, creativity, technology and the new economy; how the culture of work and society are changing under the influence of technology; and how New York fits into these themes.
Zomorodi will continue to host New Tech City, which she co-created last fall as a freelancer with WNYC producer Charlie Herman. The new position is effective July 1.
As managing editor, Zomorodi will oversee a new phase of New Tech City, in which WNYC plans to expand the weekly segment into a new programming concept that will first and foremost be a digital media enterprise with videos, live events and other components that break from traditional radio programming.
“I am thrilled that New Tech City has connected with listeners and that WNYC sees an opportunity for the project to become an innovative example of the very transformation that we explore in our segments,” said Zomorodi in a statement “Understanding how technology is dramatically reshaping New York, and how New York in turn is driving innovation, is vital to understanding our future. But tech isn’t just about the latest gadget or the start up scene – it’s about how digital age is changing the way we live, work and relate to each other. I am so thrilled to be joining WNYC’s amazing family of storytellers and look forward to growing New Tech City into a bigger tent that can address all of these issues and nuances.”
New Tech City launched last fall to explore the tech scene, and innovation more broadly, in the New York City metro region.
Yahoo Finance hires two biz reporters
by Chris Roush
Yahoo Finance has hired to business journalists to work on its finance news desk.
Rick Newman was hired from U.S. News & World Report. He is “doing GA stuff and has already written a dozen or so pieces for us,” said Finance editor in chief Aaron Task.
Newman had written for U.S. News for more than 15 years, covering corporate and consumer trends from the magazine’s New York bureau. He was also the magazine’s car reviewer.
Newman frequently wrote about bellwether firms such as General Motors, Yahoo!, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, The Carlyle Group, and the nation’s major airlines, focusing on issues that impact consumers. He has also played a key role in the expansion of the magazine’s online business coverage.
From 1995 through 2001, Newman was U.S. News’s chief Pentagon correspondent, covering wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and reporting from military bases, ships, airplanes, and submarines around the world. He helped anchor the magazine’s 9/11 coverage and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In addition, Aaron Pressman has been hired from Reuters. Task says he is going to be a senior reporter, focusing on technology sector.
Pressman has been a journalist focused on business, technology and investing for over 20 years, writing for the new services Reuters and Bloomberg and publications such as Wired, The Industry Standard and The Christian Science Monitor.
After five years working on the staff of BusinessWeek magazine, where his “Investing Insights” blog won the silver medal for best blog of the year from the American Society of Business Publication Editors in 2007, Pressman was a Boston-based correspondent for the Reuters News service.
Hartford Business Journal names new editor, ME and news editor
by Chris Roush
The Hartford Business Journal has named Greg Bordonaro, Brad Kane and Greg Seay will take over as editor, managing editor and news editor, respectively, on July 1.
Bordonaro replaces Norm Bell, who is moving to Las Vegas in late June.
Bordonaro joined the Hartford Business Journal in 2008, serving as a reporter covering health care, banking and finance, and real estate. In August, Bordonaro, who previously wrote for the Hartford Courant, will receive his MBA from the University of Hartford.
Kane, who will step into the role of managing editor, joined Hartford Business Journal in 2010, serving as a reporter covering energy, manufacturing, and construction. He also serves as the editor of Connecticut Green Guide, a quarterly statewide publication focusing on sustainable business.
Seay, who will move into the news editor chair, joined Hartford Business Journal in 2008, serving as web editor, overseeing HartfordBusiness.com. Previously, he served as a business reporter and editor for the Hartford Courant from 1992 to 2007.
“We decided to back the home team,” said Hartford Business Journal publisher Gail Lebert in a statement. “We had some fantastic outside candidates with great experience at prestigious media organizations, but we decided the very best opportunity for the Hartford Business Journal was the talented, experienced individuals we already had.”
Read more here.
WSJ names new markets desk chief
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Matt Murray sent out the following promotion on Monday:
We are delighted to announce that Tim Annett has been named Markets Desk Chief in New York, effective immediately.
Tim is well-suited to this important job, running the hard-charging desk that does much of the real-time editing for finance and markets as well as the editing for the Money & Investing section of the U.S. paper and the finance sections of the overseas editions. He has been serving as acting chief for the last few months and before that had been deputy editor of the markets desk since its formation in 2008.
He joined the Journal in 2000 as an editor on wsj.com’s evening shift, and from there went on to cover economic news for the site, write the Afternoon Report and Evening Wrap email newsletters and lead wsj.com’s markets team, editing online news coverage and the MarketBeat blog through the peak of the financial crisis. Before coming to the Journal, Tim worked on the business news and city desks at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida from 1995-2000.
Tim will report to Francesco, and work especially closely with Rick Brooks and Emma Moody, completing the full integration of the new global finance team. He will also coordinate with the Real-Time News Desk on breaking news coverage and other digital priorities.
New biz editor at Massachusetts paper
by Chris Roush
Tony Dobrowolski is the new business editor at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass., replacing Charles Bonenti.
Dobrowolski writes, “I’ll be honest. I can’t completely replace Charles. But then no one here really can. I’ve spent 20 years at The Eagle. He was here for 40. He started his career at The Eagle the year that I was a senior in high school. Charles’ knowledge of the Berkshires is considerably greater than mine, and just about anyone else’s who currently works at this newspaper.
“But what I will attempt to do is carry on the great work that Charles began. Under his byline, this column was called ‘Good Deals.’ Under my byline, we’re not going to have a title just yet. I plan to stake out some of the same territory that Charles did. But I also plan to write about different business topics, localizing them as much as possible.
“What recently caught my eye is the number of businesses in the Berkshires that have closed. Turnover is always a part of the business world, but there seems to have been an awful lot of activity in that area around here the last few months.”
Read more here.
ACBJ publisher in San Antonio retires
by Chris Roush
American City Business Journals CEO Whitney Shaw sent out the following announcement to the company on Thursday:
Kent Krauss is retiring after a distinguished 30-year career as a business journal reporter, editor and publisher. By any definition, Kent has helped build not just individual business journals but our industry as a whole.
As I’ve gotten an opportunity to work with Kent over a number of years, I’ve always respected the inherent “goodness” that he’s brought to the office every day of his career. The traits that have made him so effective – caring for his family and his employees, investing in his community and leading by example – are ones that we all aspire to attain and maintain. Kent and his wife Kathy have five children. As you can imagine, he’s looking forward to spending more time with them.
Kent’s business journal career has taken him and his family from Milwaukee to Phoenix to San Antonio. He joined ACBJ in 1983 as a senior reporter in Milwaukee, two weeks before publication of the first issue there. A year later, he was named managing editor in Milwaukee and became editor of the business journal in Phoenix in spring 1987. For the past 22 years, he’s been publisher of the San Antonio Business Journal.
I will begin working immediately with Kent and group publisher Rob Fisher to find the next publisher in San Antonio. I’m hoping that person will be in place so Kent can begin his retirement somewhere around Labor Day.
Please join me in thanking Kent for all that he’s done for ACBJ. I know I can speak for everyone in ACBJ in wishing you much success and enjoyment in retirement, Kent.
