2001 News: 2001-2002 Board of Directors elected

SABEW MEMBERS CHOSE NEW OFFICERS, BOARD MEMBERS

COLUMBIA, MO., Wednesday, May 2, 2001 - Bill Barnhart, financial columnist for the Chicago Tribune, was named president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) at the organization's 38th annual convention in New York City.

"SABEW's growth to more than 3,000 members in North America reflects the increased importance of business and economic news coverage and the demand by our readers and viewers for clear and objective information about their money and their jobs," Barnhart said.

"In the year ahead, SABEW will extend its professional development programs to a greater number of news organizations, especially smaller news shops."

Charles Jaffe, mutual funds columnist for the Boston Globe, was named vice president for the coming year. Kathy Kristof, personal finance columnist for the Los Angeles Times, was named secretary-treasurer.

SABEW members attending the annual meeting approved a by-law change that permits newsroom mangers to become SABEW members if they oversee business reporting but are not directly engaged in full-time business reporting. The change also permits SABEW members to retain their memberships even if they move to assignments at news organizations not directly related to business coverage.

Three new governors were elected to the 18-member board of governors: Mark Calvey, a reporter for the San Francisco Business Times; Bernie Kohn, night business editor for The Washington Post; and Robert Thomson, U.S. managing editor for the Financial Times.

Reelected board members were: Rebecca Bisbee of the Seattle Times; Frank Brill of The Journal News (White Plains, N.Y.); Sandra Gonzalez of Bloomberg News; Cheryl Hall of the Dallas Morning News; Jonathan Lansner of The Orange County (Calif.) Register; James Mallory of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution; Sougata Mukherjee of American City Business Journals; Floyd Norris of The New York Times; Richard Papiernik of Nation's Restaurant News; Randy Picht of the Associated Press; Richard Satran of Reuters; Brahm Resnik of the Arizona Republic; Craig Schwed of Gannett News Service; Rex Seline of Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram and Alecia Swasy of the St. Petersburg Times.

SABEW, headquartered at the Missouri School of Journalism, is a not-for profit education association of 3,300 business journalists in North America. Formed in 1964 to promote superior coverage of business and economic events and issues, it is the only business journalism association for editors and writers.

SABEW has three specialty reporting conferences scheduled for later this year: The fifth annual SABEW technology reporting workshop will be held in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina, June 14-16; the seventh annual personal finance reporting workshop in Irvine, Calif., August 18-19; and the first general workshop on business reporting and writing, set for Chicago, October 14-15. See www.sabew.org, for details.