Biz Buzz for April 2007: The latest comings and goings

(Now a monthly feature on the SABEW web site)

By Chris Roush croush@email.unc.edu

ATLANTA BIZ EDITOR LEAVES FOR PR JOB

Atlanta Journal-Constitution business editor Mark Braykovich leaves the paper to become director of public relations for Troutman Sanders, a large law firm in the city.

Braykovich, a Society of American Business Editors and Writers board member, oversaw a staff of 35 reporters and editors covering metro Atlanta’s business community at the AJC.

Readership editor Dorrie Toney becomes acting business editor, according to an e-mail from DME Mike Lupo. Toney had been on the business desk earlier as an assistant biz editor. In his e-mail, Lupo wrote, “She’ll work closely with Deputy Business Editor Henry Unger, who will continue to oversee the daily journalism of the department and the daily section.”

In an e-mail, Braykovich stated, “The decision was not an easy one. As many of you know, I’ve been involved in journalism for 25 years and have loved every minute of it. I’ve had the good fortune of working for and with some of the nation’s best journalists, and to be involved in dozens of thrilling stories over the years. It also isn’t easy to leave the fantastic Business staff at the AJC, whose work has been nothing less than stellar during my five years here.”

He joined the paper in December 2001 after serving as assistant managing editor/local news for the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal for three years. Prior to that, he was senior editor at The Cincinnati Enquirer, where he worked for 12 years as a business reporter, investigative reporter and, ultimately, as an editor overseeing projects throughout the newspaper.

TIME JOURNALIST MOVES TO BUSINESS 2.0 EXEC ED SLOT

Philip Elmer-DeWitt, a longtime Time Inc. journalist, becomes Business 2.0’s new exec editor.

Previously, Elmer-Dewitt worked at Time, where he was most recently an AME

Elmer-DeWitt has been covering science and technology for Time since he reported a cover story on computer “Whiz Kids” in 1982. He became a staff writer in 1983, a senior writer in 1993, a senior editor in 1994 and an assistant managing editor in 1997. He started two new sections in the magazine — Computers (1982) and Technology (1987) — and in 1994 helped launch Time Online (now Time.com), America’s first interactive weekly newsmagazine. In January 2002 was promoted to sciences editor, directing Time’s coverage of science, medicine, space and the environment.

“Thrilled is an often-used term about new hires but in this case it couldn’t be more appropriate. There are few journalists with as much experience covering the Internet and technology as Phil. I couldn’t be more excited to be working alongside him again. He is a great addition to Team B2.0,” said Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner

In 2006, the magazine reported ad revenue of $48.7 million, down about 1 percent from 2005. Its ad pages were down 5.1 percent to 755.77.

NEW BIZ EDITOR IN TORONTO

Mark Heinzl, a former business reporter for the Wall Street Journal in its Toronto bureau, has been named the Toronto Star’s new biz editor. The Journal had closed its Canadian bureaus at the end of 2006.

Heinzl covered a number of major Canadian business stories in recent years, from the Nortel implosion to Conrad Black's legal troubles to the rise of RIM, the Waterloo-based developer of the BlackBerry personal communicator.

“His work has all the characteristics of business journalism at its best – accurate, authoritative and unafraid to challenge the powerful and connected,” said Star editor in chief Fred Kuntz.

Heinzl, married with three children, also wrote a 1999 book on the mutual funds industry, a national bestseller.

Born and raised in Hamilton, Heinzl is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario in London and Ryerson University.

BOSS WATCH

Robert Pollock becomes features editor for The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. He has been a member of the editorial board since 2005… Mike Mills, formerly head of Congressional Quarterly’s online publishing, leaves to become ed of the Washington Business Journal. Mills is a former Washington Post biz reporter….New York Post biz editor Dan Colarusso, who has been the biz section editor for the past two years, becomes the metropolitan editor of the paper…. Dallas Morning News assistant biz editor Alan Goldstein leaves to join Bloomberg News in New York, where he’ll edit on the bond desk. Says Goldstein: “The Bloomberg bonds team has been doing some terrific coverage, and I’m eager to be part of it.”

ALONG THE EAST COAST

Bloomberg News M&A reporter Dana Cimilluca leaves the wire service after seven years for a job at The Wall Street Journal….Hilary Johnson takes a job as regional banking reporter at American Banker. She was previously a stock-market reporter at Bloomberg….Allan Lengel, who has covered law enforcement for the Washington Post, moves to the real estate beat….Kate Kelly, who had covered the entertainment biz at The Wall Street Journal, moves to the New York office to write about investment banking….Reuters correspondent Kevin Drawbaugh in Washington becomes a Congressional correspondent covering business news on Capitol Hill after five years covering policy and enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission… Charles Sheehan is back at The Associated Press, as an editor at AP’s biz news desk in New York, after two years at the Chicago Tribune. He’d gone to Chicago from the AP bureau in Pittsburgh, where he was a reporter. Other new hires at AP in New York include Kristen Lee and Rachel Metz, who join the financial news desk producing the premium APFN service. AP also hired two staffers for its financial news desk in Washington, Dibya Sarkar and Alan Zibel. And Brad Foss, who had covered energy and transportation for AP, moves into the supervisory editor’s position for that Washington operation….Spencer Soper becomes one of five business reporters for The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. He covers consumer issues and manufacturing. Soper joined the paper in 2005 as a general assignment reporter. He has been a reporter at newspapers in New York, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area. His last paper had been The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif, where he covered county government…Julie Gordon leaves BusinessWeek’s online operations for a position at am New York.

IN THE SOUTH

Katie Wadington become business editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times, overseeing one of its biggest coverage issues: growth and development….Birmingham News biz reporter Mike Tomberlin leaves for a 12-month stint in Afghanistan as part of the Alabama Army National Guard.

HEARTLAND MOVES

Crain’s Chicago Business consumer products reporter Julie Jargon leaves for the Chicago bureau of the Wall Street Journal, where she'll cover food companies…Crayton Harrison joins Bloomberg News in its Dallas office to cover telecommunications. He had been at the Dallas Morning News….Tim Barker joins the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to cover the economy, the same beat he had covered at the Orlando Sentinel… Beth Potter joins the Denver Business Journal to cover the business of law. Her other beats are hospitality and tourism. Potter most recently was writing The Denver Post, filling in for a reporter on maternity leave. She takes over the beat from Paula Moore, who returns to the real estate beat she once covered. The real estate reporter was Jan Buchholz, who is moving to the Biz Journal’s sister paper in Phoenix. The Oakland Business Review and Ann Arbor Business Review in Michigan launched redesigned issues Feb. 22, including new headers and headline fonts. The Oakland paper also launches a new monthly real estate and economic development section, Structures. The first section, at 20 pages, included five stories, a map of ongoing Oakland County projects, a list of the largest leases and commercial-industrial building sales, and lots of graphics detailing vacancy and quoted rates and stock performance of Oakland-based real estate and development firms.

WEST COAST CHANGES

Rick Wartzman, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, begins writing a new weekly column for the biz section of the Los Angeles Times. He is a former Times biz editor…. Sacramento financial expert and media personality Tom Sullivan begins writing a weekly personal finance column for The Sacramento Bee…. Jessica Mintz moves from AP’s biz news desk in New York to the AP Seattle bureau, where she’ll cover Microsoft, Starbacks, Amazon and other area companies…David Butts takes a new job at his paper, The Honolulu Advertiser, Hawaii’s largest daily. He was the business editor since February 2004 and was promoted to the newly created position of local news editor in February. The local news desk is a combination of the city and business desks with 38 reporters and editors. Butt says there is no decline in business coverage, “but rather we made the change in part to acknowledge that business news can be generated by any reporter in the newsroom. We still have a separate business section with six reporters and one editor who focus primarily on business news.” Alan Yonan Jr., the assistant business editor, heads up that team

MAGAZINE MOVES

Sophia Banay joins Conde Nast’s Portfolio as a staff writer. She previously had been at Forbes.com. Claire Huffman also joins Portfolio from the Los Angeles Times…Ellen McGirt joins Fast Company as a senior writer, leaving Fortune.

ON THE AIRWAVES

Marketwatch columnist Charles Jaffe – a former SABEW president – is back on the radio in the Boston market. His new show is called “Your Money” and airs every morning from 6 to 7:30 on WBIX. Jaffe had previously been on the all-business station between 2002 and 2004….Jill Barshay becomes the New York bureau chief for American Public Media's Marketplace radio show. She starts her new post in June and most recently worked as a reporter for CQ Weekly…Scott Mayerowitz joins the business desk of ABC News.com from the Providence Journal.

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE

The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of backdating stock options becomes the first winner of the inaugural Philip Meyer Awards, administered by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting… Also, WSJ reporters Charles Forelle, James Bandler and Mark Maremont win a George K. Polk Award for their reporting on backdating of stock options...Sheila Mullan, a senior bond reporter at Market News International, becomes president of the New York Financial Writers Association. Mullan, who covers the U.S. Treasury bond market, had been vice president of the organization during the last year. She has also worked as a freelance writer at the New York Times and New York Post’s Sunday business news sections.

IN PASSING

Polly Lane, who covered commercial real estate and the aerospace industry for the Seattle Times, died in January at the age of 70 after suffering from cancer, according to a story in the Times. She had retired from the paper in 2000. Reporter Marsha King wrote, “As the story goes, Boeing executives got so accustomed to 5 a.m. calls at home from reporter Polly Lane chasing down a lead, they’d automatically pick up the phone with ‘Hello, Polly.’”

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Posted March 30, 2007