Tag Archives: Job changes
Ex-Obama advisor named Bloomberg TV contributor
by Chris Roush
David Plouffe, former campaign manager and White House senior advisor to President Obama, has joined Bloomberg as contributor and strategic advisor for Bloomberg Television.
As contributor, Plouffe will appear regularly on Bloomberg Television to offer analysis and commentary on political and business issues as they impact the intersection of Wall Street, Main Street and K Street and will lend his expertise to the discussion of technology, demographic changes and crisis management. In addition, Plouffe, widely hailed as the architect of President Obama’s two victories, will serve in an advisory capacity for the network.
“I am excited for both the on and off air relationship with Bloomberg,” said Plouffe in a statement. “Their programming lends itself to fuller discussion, which given the complexity of the issues before our country, is of great value.”
“David has one of the sharpest political minds in the nation,” said Andrew Morse, head of Bloomberg Television in the United States, in a statement. “We’re thrilled he’s joining the Bloomberg team to provide his unique insight and analysis to our coverage of business and politics.”
Bond Buyer names new editor
by Chris Roush
Michael Scarchilli has been named editor in chief of The Bond Buyer, which provides news, data and analysis of the $3.7 trillion United States municipal finance market.
A story on its website states, “Scarchilli, an eight-year veteran of The Bond Buyer, takes the top editorial role effective immediately. He will lead a 25-member staff distributed across the nation, overseeing content development and creation for the brand’s online service and its daily digital and print editions. Scarchilli is charged with serving and expanding The Bond Buyer’s diverse readership base, which extends from public-sector finance officers to investment bankers and bond lawyers with online enhancements and deep coverage of the crucial issues facing the market.
“‘Adding my name to the long list of leaders of this 122-year-old institution is an absolute honor and privilege,’ said Scarchilli. ‘I look forward to spearheading The Bond Buyer’s continued development as a real-time online news service, and maintaining its long-standing reputation as required reading for participants in the municipal bond market.’
“Scarchilli was previously Managing Editor, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the brand’s web site and newspaper. In that role, he was a key contributor to the development of The Bond Buyer’s redesigned web site, which was introduced in June 2012. Among other things, he led the introduction of video content and redesigned the Daily Briefing e-newsletter to give subscribers easier access to exclusive content about bond sales, and national policy debates impacting the market. Before becoming an editor, Scarchilli was The Bond Buyer’s senior market correspondent, covering the cross-market fallout from the subprime debt crisis, and earlier was a regional reporter covering issuers in the Northeast.”
Read more here. He replaces Gavin Murphy.
Westchester paper hires biz journalist
by Chris Roush
Business journalist Erika Vujnovich has been hired as a member of The Journal News’ Tax Watch team, where she will write about how to teach their children about financial topics for the New York state paper.
Cara Matthews of the paper writes, “Kids hear people talk about money, the economy, housing and other financial issues all the time, said Vujnovich, 38. ‘We have a responsibility to educate our kids about this sooner rather than later,’ she said.
“Her answers to readers’ financial questions will appear twice monthly on the Tax Watch page, which runs Fridays in the newspaper and online at lohud.com.
“‘We want to hear from our readers in terms of as parents what are some of their concerns about money or talking about money or questions that they get from their kids,’ she said.
“Vujnovich, a graduate of Brown University, does marketing with Thomson Reuters financial division. She is a former writer and producer at CNNfn (financial news), CNBC and Bloomberg. She is a member of the New York Financial Writers’ Association and received a 30 under 30 financial journalism award from the TJFR Group Inc., the parent company of NewsBios.”
Read more here.
Leger retiring from Wall Street Journal
by Chris Roush
John Leger, a news editor for The Wall Street Journal who has worked for Dow Jones & Co. for three decades, is retiring.
Most recently, Leger has been overseeing Journal Reports on wealth management, philanthropy, country reports and The Wall Street Journal’s annual Technology Innovation Awards. He was also one of the original editors at The Wall Street Journal Europe and former deputy bureau chief in London.
In an email Tuesday afternoon to his colleagues, Leger writes:
Over the Christmas holidays many years ago, an Indiana University student from Louisville, Ky., received a telegram. Congratulations, it said. You have been selected for a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing internship. Next summer you’ll be working at…..The Wall Street Journal, New York.
And so began an incredible journey that would last for nearly four decades and take me all over the world. Today that journey ends. I am retiring to, you know, do what retirees are supposed to do: play shuffleboard. Go to dinner at 5 pm for the senior special. Take Viagra. Watch cat videos. Move my lips while reading. Buy a lifetime supply of Preparation H. Call into talk radio: “…And I tell ya another thing. And..uh, uh, I lost my train of thought…”
Well, I’m not planning to do any of that (except watch cat videos). I’m exploring all kinds of fun possibilities. And I’ll be doing whatever I can to support the Princeton University Art Museum and Library as well as L’Avant-Scene, the French theatre workshop at Princeton.
But before I do, I’d like to express my deep gratitude, especially to those who have given me such extraordinary opportunities:
The Dow Jones Newspaper (now News) Fund, for selecting me and assigning me to the Journal.
John Kelliher, the copydesk chief who guided my way that summer AND tracked me down the following summer to offer me a job for when I graduated.
Norm Pearlstine, for bringing me to Brussels right before he started up The Wall Street Journal Europe. What an amazing experience working with such extraordinary journalists as Norm, John Huey, John Geddes, Matt Winkler, Marty Schenker and many others. And, of course, all those who followed in their footsteps, such as Bob Keatley, Urban Lehner, Bill Casey, Phil Revzin, Fred Kempe, Rich Hudson, Raju Narisetti and Tracy Corrigan, to name just a few.
Karen Pensiero and Al Anspaugh. They know why.
Gordon Crovitz and Nayan Chanda, for bringing me to Hong Kong for my next adventure: working at the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Karen House, for supporting me at key moments in my career.
Rupert Murdoch, for investing in Dow Jones and the Journal. Just look at all these great new sections and all the amazing talent we’ve hired. And as someone who worked 20 years outside the U.S., I’m deeply grateful for the vast expansion of our international news coverage (for which we deserve numerous Pulitzer Prizes).
The truly great Larry Rout, editor of Journal Reports. I’ve worked with Larry for more than 10 years but it occurred to me only recently that I’m actually one of the newer members of his group. Others have been with Larry for much longer. That should tell you something about how he inspires such dedication and why so many people want to work for him.
All of you, especially my fabulous colleagues in Journal Reports and everyone who has ever written for my reports over the years.
Reuters fires Matthew Keys
by Chris Roush
Thomson Reuters has dismissed Matthew Keys, the deputy social media editor of Reuters.com who was indicted on charges of aiding members of the Anonymous hacking collective, Keys said in a Twitter message on Monday.
Peter Henderson of Reuters writes, “Thomson Reuters spokesman David Girardin said that Keys was no longer with the company, effective Monday, and declined further comment.
“Keys was indicted in March by a federal grand jury in Sacramento, Calif., on three criminal counts alleging that he helped members of the Anonymous collective hack into computer systems of the Tribune Co. The alleged events occurred before he joined Reuters, the indictment indicated. He has maintained his innocence, and his arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.
“In his job at Reuters, Keys posted news from Reuters and other sources on both company Twitter feeds and other means, including his own Twitter account. He was suspended from Reuters after last month’s indictment and his access to his Reuters email account was cut off. He continued to tweet from a personal account, @TheMatthewKeys, and identified himself as an editor at Reuters.”
Read more here.
Peter Szekely, secretary-treasurer of the Newspaper Guild of New York, issued the following statement: “Our contract with Thomson Reuters prohibits management from dismissing anyone without just and sufficient cause. We don’t believe the company has the required justification here. At this point, we intend to vigorously defend Matthew Keys as we would any other hard-working member of the Newspaper Guild of New York who had been fired without cause.”
Houston biz columnist says goodbye
by Chris Roush
Loren Steffy, the business columnist at the Houston Chronicle, says goodbye to his readers after nine years writing the column.
Steffy is joining a strategic communications firm with some of his former Bloomberg News colleagues.
Steffy writes, “More than nine years ago, when former Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen first discussed a column, he asked me how I would make mine different from the others out there.
“I told him I wanted to write a column that gave a voice to the voiceless constituents of the marketplace – investors, employees and consumers. Too often, their concerns are drowned out by the din and machinations of corporatespeak.
“We call this the business section, but that, too, is a holdover from a different era of journalism. What we really write about here is money and the people it affects.
“Following that flow of money led me to an incredible cast of characters over the years. I interviewed fishermen who live on the southern Louisiana island dubbed ‘The Bathtub’ in the Oscar-nominated film ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild,’ and I joked about drinking Irish coffee with a Saudi mining executive in Riyadh.
“I talked to musician Robert Earl Keen about the pension plan he provides for his band. I interviewed spinach farmers in the Rio Grande Valley, cotton farmers in the Panhandle, and wildcatters from the familiar fields of West Texas to the untapped fields of eastern Turkey.
“I also found hubris, most notably in the testimony of fallen Enron executive Jeff Skilling at his 2006 trial, and heartbreak, in the stories of victims and survivors of disasters such as BP’s Texas City refinery explosion and the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”
Read more here.
Why Dan Lyons left business journalism
by Chris Roush
Dan Lyons, the former tech reporter for Newsweek and Forbes, writes about why he left business journalism.
Lyons writes, “I also had grown less and less enchanted with the kind of work I was doing as a “mainstream” journalist.
“Media companies need a new way to make money — one that doesn’t depend on advertising. But so far nobody has come up with anything. That wouldn’t be so bad, if at least they were aware of this problem. The truly scary thing to me is that publishers either aren’t aware of this, or won’t admit it.
“Instead of inventing a new business model, media companies keep trying to tweak the old one. By that I mean they keep trying to invent new kinds of advertising. It’s a pointless exercise. They’re like blacksmiths who are responding to Henry Ford and his automobile by trying to create a better horseshoe.
“For a long time I didn’t want to admit how serious and profound were the challenges facing the media business. I wanted to believe, as many still do, that somehow everything will work out. Like most journalists, I get a little romantic about the news business.
“But the thing is, I’m also a business journalist. As a business journalist, I could see the disruption taking place. I could see that the entire foundation of the industry was crumbling. And I knew that when that happens, in any industry, it’s time to get out.”
Read more here.
WSJ’s Brewster leaving paper for parent company
by Chris Roush
Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Deborah Brewster, who overees hiring and recruiting at the paper, is leaving for a job at the paper’s new parent company.
Here is the announcement Friday from managing editor Gerard Baker:
After four highly productive years at Dow Jones, Deborah Brewster is leaving us to take up a senior position in the new NewsCorp.
Deborah has been a stalwart and trusted member of our leadership team, a deputy managing editor who has executed with great aplomb and dispatch her twin roles: overseeing the management of human talent across the newsroom, and leading our graphics, art direction and photography teams. She has also been a source of impeccable judgment and wise counsel on many other areas of importance and she will be greatly missed. Before joining Dow Jones, Deborah had already had a long and distinguished career in journalism in Australia and the United States. Fortunately for us, of course, she is not going far, and will be taking that experience and talent upstairs. I look forward to collaborating further with her as we work to make the new company the best publishing business in the world.
I will be announcing a successor shortly but please join me in thanking Deborah for her contribution to Dow Jones’s great progress in the last three years and in wishing her even more success in her new role.
WSJ looking for Mexico City reporter
by Chris Roush
The Wall Street Journal is looking for a new reporter in its Mexico City bureau.
Here is the announcement:
The Mexico City bureau of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires is looking for an energetic, enterprising and intelligent journalist who can break news and help cover one of the world´s biggest emerging market economies.
The ideal candidate should have at least eight years of professional experience in a major news organization and should be able to deliver fast and smart coverage for our real-time news operation, the ability to pull off deep-dive stories that explain Mexico´s social and political dynamics for The Wall Street Journal, write blog posts, and even shoot videos for WSJ.com.
The successful candidate should be a team player in a dynamic 10-person newsroom. The post demands a reporter with the ability to build sources, an appetite for breaking news, and versatility to cover complex themes for multiple content platforms, including corporate news, economic policy, politics and cross border issues affecting Mexico and the US.
Fluency in Spanish and English is essential.
Get in touch by email with Santiago Pérez (Santiago.perez@dowjones.com) and David Luhnow (david.luhnow@wsj.com) if you’re interested.
Santiago Perez
Editor, Mexico City
David Luhnow
Bureau Chief, Mexico City
San Diego paper names new biz columnist
by Chris Roush
Dan McSwain is the new business columnist at the Union-Tribune in San Diego.
McSwain writes, “In college I pursued a writing career, eventually becoming the editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. I left college, along with a good job as a business reporter at a daily newspaper, to go back to work for my father.
“My first task was to lead the company’s automation effort. Later, as plant manager, a customer forced us into a crash program to adopt modern management practices such as just-in-time production scheduling and statistical analysis that vastly improved quality.
“In 1988, my dad sold his company, and I left to start a competing firm with my brother. It was successful. Five years later, I sold my half to focus on consuming bourbon and other drugs. Soon becoming a full-blown alcoholic, I moved quickly from wealthy to broke and homeless. It took me about four years to get sober; it’s been nearly 16 years since my last drink, drug, car wreck or jail term.
“Starting in 1998, I helped a friend start a digital media company. My role as CFO and VP of corporate development was to create the business plan, raise venture capital, help negotiate licenses and contracts, and do some user interface development. My friend sold that company to a Fortune 500 firm.
“I returned to journalism full time in 2000, as a business reporter. Over the last 13 years, I’ve also worked as a news editor, editorial page editor, editorial writer and managing editor. I’ve worked at U-T San Diego as an editorial writer and business columnist.”
Read more here.