Biz Buzz for January 2007: The latest comings and goings

(Now a monthly feature on the SABEW web site)

By Chris Roush croush@email.unc.edu

SERWER BECOMES FORTUNE’S NEW ME

Andy Serwer, previously editor-at-large, becomes Fortune magazine’s ME, says Time Inc’s EIC John Huey in a memo. Serwer, 47, succeeds Eric Pooley, who will work with Huey, a former editor of the mag, and Time Inc. ME Jim Kelly on investigative projects.

Pooley had been ME for less than two years.

“We all know that the world of business journalism has increasingly become a multi-media proposition, involving not only the magazine but its brand representations on the Internet, on television and radio, wherever the reader wants his or her information,” says Huey. “And no one is more qualified to lead Fortune on those multiple fields of battle than Andy.”

Serwer joined Fortune in 1985 as an intern from Columbia after getting his MBA from Emory. He was later promoted to associate editor. He went on to become one of the glossy’s most productive writers. In addition to covering Wall Street, investing, information technology, and entertainment, Serwer has edited and written the front-of-the-book section, which includes breaking news and features on personalities, media, and technology.

As editor-at-large at Fortune since 1998, Serwer wrote the “Street Life” column as well as stories about the personalities and behind-the-scenes action on Wall Street. His work has ranged from his column to major cover stories on everything from Michael Price (“The Toughest S.O.B. on Wall Street”) to the business of the Rolling Stones to the first look inside the financial and philanthropic workings of America’s richest family, the Waltons.

Serwer has also been the biz anchor of CNN's “American Morning” news show. He will continue to have an on-air presence on CNN.

O’BRYON SWAPS COASTS

Linda O’Bryon, who helped start the Miami-based “Nightly Business Report” television show back in 1979 now shown on more than 250 public TV stations, becomes the new chief content officer for Northern California Public Broadcasting.

In 2004, O’Bryon received the Distinguished Achievement Award by SABEW at the 41st annual conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

O’Bryon will report directly to Jeff Clarke, president and CEO of Northern California Public Broadcasting. O’Bryon succeeds John Boland, who recently left to become chief content officer at PBS. Her first day was Jan. 2.

“I am going to miss Florida, but I am looking forward to the challenges in northern California,” O’Bryon told Biz Buzz shortly before leaving. “It was a tough decision because I am very happy here and have a great team and enjoy working on Nightly Business Report. But this is a new challenge and a new chapter and a wonderful community.”

O’Bryon’s new outfit doesn’t have a specific business show. “They have a lot of coverage of the local community, and that includes business,” she says. “So that will be one of my goals, to develop more in the way of business. Nightly Business Report has always talked about opening a West Coast bureau.”

She spearheaded the creation of the program in 1979 while working as news director at South Florida public television station WPBT. When NBR launched for the first time in January 1979, she managed the program and served as co-anchor. The program was nationally syndicated in 1981 and has been credited for spawning the genre of daily biz news programming on broadcast and cable television.

As general manager of NBR Enterprises, the operating division at WPBT that produces business news, O’Bryon oversaw Nightly Business Report’s editorial and business operations. In addition to producing 260 daily news programs a year and a daily News Brief, NBR Enterprises also oversaw NBR’s international licensing, its web site on PBS.org, and video production projects.

ROSE BECOMES EXEC ED OF SMART MONEY

Bob Rose, the assistant ME of biz news at the Philly Inquirer for the past two years, leaves to become executive ed of Smart Money. Rose started in his new gig on Nov. 30.

“I’m thrilled to welcome Bob to the SmartMoney team,” said EIC Jonathan Dahl. “His fresh, newsy approach to both financial and consumer features will be a real asset to the magazine.”

While at The Inquirer, Rose worked with a staff of 25 reporters and editors. The paper’s biz section won a 2005 “Best in Business” award.

Before joining The Inquirer in April 2004, Rose was a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal for 19 years in New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

As a Journal reporter, he covered personal finance, the financial futures markets, airlines, manufacturing and labor. As a Journal editor, he served as deputy bureau chief in Chicago, and a news editor on The Journal’s national desk in New York. From 2000 to 2004, he was The Journal’s Atlanta bureau chief, leading a staff of a dozen reporters and editors covering companies, industries, and issues in the Southeast.

Before joining The Journal, Rose spent three years as a reporter for a radio and telephone news service of Dow Jones and four years as a general assignment reporter for The Toledo Blade.

BOSS WATCH

SABEW board member Josh Mills, an editor at Bloomberg News, leaves the wire service to return to Baruch College, where he had previously taught….Joe Maguire, a markets editor at Reuters, loses his job because he writes a book about Ann Coulter, reports the New York Times… Jay Sherman becomes deputy biz editor at the New York Post. Sherman joins the paper from Pensions & Investments, where he covered trading and asset services. Sherman joined P&Is’ New York office in June from TelevisionWeek, where he was business editor for three years…. Adam Bryant, the former Newsweek biz editor who returned to the New York Times earlier this year, becomes editor for enterprise in the biz section, sez biz editor Larry Ingrassia’s memo…Tara Siegel-Barnard becomes the new Web editor of CNBC.com on MSN Money. She had covered personal finance for Dow Jones Newswires…Ron Fields, biz editor of The Hawk Eye in Burlington, Iowa, becomes ME of The Hays Daily News in Kansas… The Vancouver Sun names Hugh Dawson as the new editor of BusinessBC, its business section…Jo Dee Black becomes interim biz editor of the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, replacing Butch Larcombe, now ed of Montana Monthly.

ON THE EAST COAST

Jody Shenn joins Bloomberg News to cover mortgage bonds. He had been at American Banker since 2003. Also at Bloomberg, Tim Mullaney becomes a technology reporter. He previously had been e-commerce department editor at BusinessWeek…Jacob Fine leaves Bond Buyer after six-plus years of writing for the Investors & Investing section. Adam Cataldo also leaves Bond Buyer to go to Bloomberg, where he covers municipal bonds….David Bertola joins Business First of Buffalo, taking over the marketing, energy, public companies, K-12 education and People on the Move beats. Bertola comes to Business First from the Independent Health Association. He replaces Annie Deck-Miller, who moves to ME of the Buffalo Law Journal, a twice-a-week sister publication.

DIXIE DOINGS

Paul Nowell, a biz writer for the Associated Press in Charlotte for the past 20 years, leaves the wire service to become media relations manager at UNC-Charlotte. Nowell will also teach a business reporting class at the university this spring….Jeremy Ashton joins the Scripps Treasure Coast newspapers, which includes the Vero Beach Press Journal and the Stuart News, as a biz reporter….Randy Diamond leaves the Tampa Tribune, where he covered insurance and tourism, for the biz desk of the Palm Beach Post, where he covers insurance and financial services.

THE MIDWEST REPORT

Longtime Cleveland Plain Dealer biz writer Tom Gerdel is among those who takes a buyout offer and leaves the paper. Gerdel was known for his coverage of manufacturing and the steel industry. Auto ed Chris Jensen also takes the buyout to become a freelance auto writer…. Nicole Garrison-Springer joins the St. Paul Pioneer Press to cover banks and financial services. She most recently served as a reporter covering banking, finance and media industry news for the Minneapolis/St.Paul Business Journal. Also, Mark Reilly becomes ME of the Biz Journal. He was formerly a reporter and assistant ME at the paper. …Ann Saphir joins Crain’s Chicago Business as a senior reporter. She was an economics reporter for Bloomberg News. Brett Buchanan joins the Austin Business Journal as staff photographer. Buchanan will also take photographs for sister publication A Magazine.

THE WEST COAST

Mike Langberg, who spent 17 years at the San Jose Mercury News, most recently as the lead columnist for the biz section where he focused on technology issues in Silicon Valley, leaves to join the TDA Group, a marketing agency. The Merc names reporters Dean Takahashi and Michelle Quinn as its new biz columnists. Takahashi appears Monday and Thursdays, while Quinn appears on Sunday and Wednesdays…Brian Womack, technology reporter for the Orange County Business Journal, leaves for a reporting job at Investor’s Business Daily….Murray Coleman leaves IBD to become a finance reporter at MarketWatch.com….Jonathan Higuera leaves the Arizona Republic to become deputy director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism….Stevi Costa joins the Pacific Coast Business Times as research director, moving up from an internship. She's finishing up her undergraduate degree at University of California Santa Barbara. Barbara Pearson moves up from research to real estate/financial services editor after Kevin Kreutz goes to Loyola Marymount Law School. Pearson is another UCSB grad who worked for an area magazine before joining the Business Times….Gretchen Macchiarella at the Ventura County Star moves off the business news desk and into multimedia at the Star. Paula Davenport joins the biz desk of the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. She’s filling in some of the reporting areas previously covered by tech writer Tom Sowa, who’s writing most of the content for the revamped tech section called .TXT.

ON THE AIRWAVES

The Wall Street Journal Radio Network hires veteran broadcast business journalist Ray Hoffman, previously with BusinessWeek in its radio operations, as its afternoon drive business news anchor…Technology reporter I.J. Hudson leaves WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.

AT THE GLOSSIES

Betsy Morris, a long-time Fortune reporter based out of Atlanta, leaves for a job at Conde Nast Portfolio, the new glossy debuting later this year. Also joining Portfolio is Brendan Vaughan, a former editor at Esquire….Gary Weiss begins writing a column for Forbes.com called the “Muckraker.” He had worked for BusinessWeek….Katie Benner leaves TheStreet.com to cover personal finance for Fortune.

AND THE WINNER IS…

“China Shakes the World,” a book about the business and economic implications of the China economy by James Kynge, wins the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs competition for Best Business Book of the Year. Other finalists were Fast Company writer Charles Fishman for “The Wal-Mart Effect” and Chris Anderson for “The Long Tail.”… Aki Soga, biz editor at The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, becomes vice president of Unity: Journalists of Color Inc.

IN PASSING

Bernice Kanner, a former reporter for The New York Times and The New York Daily News who was also ed of WomensBiz.US, died Oct. 24 from an aneurysm. She was 57. An obituary in Ad Age noted, “She may be best known for writing, for 13 years until 1994, ‘On Madison Avenue,’ a weekly marketing column for New York Magazine, where she was also a senior editor. Ms. Kanner got her start covering marketing as a senior editor at Advertising Age, and during her career was a columnist for the New York Daily News and a writer at JWT.”

Isadore Barmash, a long-time retail reporter for The New York Times, died Nov. 9. He was 84. Barmash worked for Fairchild Publications in the early 1950s, was managing editor of Women’s Wear Daily from 1955 to 1963 and then worked for The New York Herald Tribune in 1963 and 1964. He joined The Times in 1965 and retired in 1991, but continued for a decade to write freelance articles and books on retailing.

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