Biz Buzz for February 2007: The latest comings and goings

(Now a monthly feature on the SABEW web site)

By Chris Roush croush@email.unc.edu

WASHINGTON POST CHANGES TOP BIZ EDITORS

Sandy Sugawara moves up from business editor to AME/financial at the Washington Post, replacing Jill Dutt, who had run the department for eight years. Dutt is now the AME/weekends.

An internal memo stated, “It will be a seamless transition for Sandy, who worked closely with Jill Dutt in their successful transformation of the Financial staff, the staff’s mission and the content and design of the Business section itself.”

Previously, Sugawara worked at UPI, States News Service and the Trenton Times, as its Washington correspondent, before joining The Post as a Metro reporter, covering government in Fairfax and the Richmond bureau.

A memo about Dutt’s promotion stated, “As AME/Financial, Jill transformed The Post’s coverage of business, finance and economics. She led the charge to explore the rise of technology firms in the Washington economy. She made her staff the hub of consumer journalism in The Post, from real estate to video games.”

Dutt joined The Post in 1995 after seven years at New York Newsday. From October 1995 until September 1996, she served as economics editor before moving to New York as the paper’s Wall Street correspondent. In 1997, Dutt became biz editor. She was named assistant managing editor in July 1998.

Meanwhile, Yuki Noguchi becomes the new tech editor at the Post, replacing Leslie Walker, who took the Post’s buyout offer earlier in 2006 but stayed on to help in the transition. Noguchi had covered technology for the paper. And Greg Schneider becomes Sugawara’s No. 2 as the new biz editor. He had previously overseen the paper’s national security team.

NEW HEAD OF NIGHTLY BIZ REPORT

Long-time TV business journalist Rodney Ward becomes senior vice president of NBR Enterprises, assuming leadership of Nightly Business Report, Miami-based WPBT’s business newscast distributed nationally by PBS to more than 250 public television stations.

As managing editor for the program since 1996, Ward succeeds NBR founding executive editor Linda O’Bryon, named chief content officer for Northern California Public Broadcasting.

In his new role, he oversees all business, marketing and website operations for NBRE, which includes the production of NBR and its in-depth specials and consumer-related educational products. Ward serves as executive editor of the program, responsible for all editorial content.

Upon naming Ward, WPBT President and CEO Rick Schneider noted, “Much of the editorial success of NBR is due to Rodney’s leadership. He is an articulate defender of the mission of the series and is enthusiastic about its future potential. I’m confident he is the right person to lead NBR into the next era.”

November marks Ward’s 30th anniversary with WPBT Channel 2. He joined the station as a producer/reporter in 1976 and was involved in numerous news and public affairs programs, including The Week Ends Here, Issues and the Media, and televised trial coverage including The State of Florida vs. Ronnie Zamora, and various other public affairs specials.

BOSS WATCH

The New York Daily News appoints Scott Wenger as AME/money and business. Wenger, 43, has worked for the tabloid newspaper since 1998, when he joined as biz editor…Dan Haar, an assistant biz editor and columnist for the Hartford Courant, becomes the paper’s new biz editor. He succeeds SABEW board member George Gombossy, who stepped down to write an investigative consumer column….Maria Shao becomes deputy biz editor/enterprise and serves as acting biz editor at the San Jose Mercury News. She was assistant biz editor at the paper since 2000 after being an editor and reporter at the Boston Globe, Business Week, Asian Wall Street Journal and Wall Street Journal….Mimi Whitefield, the Monday biz editor at the Miami Herald, becomes business enterprise editor to develop the paper’s international and small biz coverage. Nancy Dahlberg replaces her in the Monday job…Jennifer Merritt, biz editor at the Florida Times-Union, leaves to become special projects editor at Money magazine. Merritt had spent 5 years at BusinessWeek before working in Jacksonville…Casey Selix, assistant biz ed at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, accepts a buyout and leaves the paper…Cindy Barth, ME for the Orlando Business Journal for the past eight years, moves up to the top slot, replacing Ken Cogburn, who had been editor for two years. Cogburn leaves the company….Kakie Urch becomes biz editor of the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif., after being AME for local news….Deborah Fisher becomes senior editor at The Tennessean, meaning the paper is now seeking her replacement to become biz editor….Reporter Allison Boggs becomes biz editor of the Spokane Spokesman Review, replacing Addy Hatch, who moves to the city desk….Anthony Clark becomes biz editor at the Gainesville Sun in Florida, a New York Times newspaper. He had been editor of the Palatka Daily News…Elizabeth Drachman is the new ME at the Washington Business Journal. Drachman moved back to the States from stints as business editor of Arabies Trends in Dubai and, before that, as editor of Business Today Egypt in Cairo. Geert De Lombaerde, editor of the Nashville Business Journal for the past three years, steps down from the position at the American City Business Journal paper.

ON THE EAST COAST

Rebecca Dana joins the New York Times’ biz desk to cover the business of television. She previously worked for the New York Observer…New York Post biz columnist Chris Byron, who specialized in writing about small company stock scams, leaves the paper…Veteran reporters, Jon Glass, formerly of the Virginia Beach bureau, and Phil Walzer, who covered higher education, move to the biz team at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. Glass takes the place of Allison Connolly, who left for the Baltimore Sun, and will cover the business of defense and technology. Walzer returns from a book-writing leave of absence and will cover workplace issues and general assignment. He replaces Jeremiah McWilliams, who is off to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch…The Boston Globe’s Carolyn Johnson begins covering technology. She had been a news reporter out of the Hanover bureau. …Andrea L. Stape, a biz reporter at the Providence Journal, leaves to take a job with Fidelity Investments….Aki Soga, the biz editor of the Burlington Free Press in Vermont, becomes the head of the paper’s editorial page

WAY DOWN SOUTH

The Orlando Sentinel starts an online daily business newsletter called the Daily Business Buzz that is pushed via e-mail to subscribers. Sara Clarke, a biz reporter whom the paper hired earlier this year, writes many of the stories, though the entire staff contributes. The newsletter also includes a feature called “Sara Says,” and a Business Tip of the Day, which has a bio of a local businessperson. The newsletter is unusual because Clarke is part of the business staff – not online – and she compiles and assembles it. …Vanessa Deggins joins The Shreveport Times as a business reporter. Originally from Baton Rouge, she has a bachelor's degree in history from LSU.

IN THE HEARTLAND

Emily Hamlin, small biz reporter at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, leaves for the San Jose Mercury News, where she is deputy chief of the features copy desk. Frank Bentayou transfers from the paper's features department to take the manufacturing beat….Julie Johnsson leaves her senior reporter post at Crain’s Chicago Business, where she covered technology and telecommunications.

WEST COAST WAVES

Changes on the San Jose Mercury News biz desk have shuffled beats around. Constance Loizos joins as venture capital/start-ups reporter for Silicon Valley, succeeding Matt Marshall who goes independent with his VentureBeat online column and blog that’s syndicated by the Mercury News. Loizos previously worked at the Venture Capital Journal and Private Equity Week. Ryan Blitstein joins as a general assignment/online reporter in business and also watches the software beat. Before the Mercury News, he worked at SF Weekly in San Francisco and Red Herring. Troy Wolverton joins as consumer electronics and entertainment reporter from The Street.com, where he was a senior writer. He succeeds John Boudreau, who becomes a reporter on globalization, a new beat….Contra Costa Times biz writer James Temple starts writing a food column on places to take job prospects, bosses and others for biz meetings.

ON THE AIRWAVES

CNBC hires staff members for its Web site operation, which re-launched in December. Albert Bozzo, former executive producer and director of the video network of Forbes.com, joins as senior news editor. Scott Billings joins Cnbc.com as senior news editor. Previously, he was the news editor/producer for WSJ.com Video where he created and produced a daily newscast of Wall Street Journal stories. Viktor Cea joins as director of content and design. He came from Gartner Inc., where he was vice president, design & development for product platforms, responsible for the strategic and creative direction for Gartner products. Jeanne Rothermich joins as senior producer for TV coverage. Most recently, she served as vice president, interactive strategy for MSNBC. Also at CNBC, Jerry Cobb, senior West Coast correspondent, leaves to oversee the marketing and communications efforts of a Phoenix-based software company…Fox business news anchor Neil Cavuto begins anchoring “The Cavuto Money Report” for Fox News Radio in January…Tech reporter I.J. Hudson leaves WRC, an NBC station in Washington… Former WNBC weekend anchor Felicia Taylor is now with CNN where she returns to business reporting. Taylor was on the biz beat before with the Financial News Network, the Financial Times, and CNBC.

AT THE GLOSSIES

Laurie P. Cohen, a 23-year veteran of The Wall Street Journal, joins the staff of Conde Nast Portfolio as a senior writer and investigative reporter, but then reverses course and returns to the Journal in February….Worth Magazine executive ed Matthew Purdue becomes interim E-I-C of the glossy until a successor can be found for editor Dwight Cass, who departed in January to become capital markets editor of breakingviews.com…Former Forbes writer Jeffrey Young is the new editor of Prosper magazine.

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE

CNN, CBS, PBS and NBC were among the winners at the fourth annual Emmy Awards for Business & Financial Reporting. PBS’ Frontline won in the category of Oustanding Documenary on a Business Topic for “Can you Afford to Retire?” Dateline NBC won in the category of Outstanding Investigative Reporting of a Business News Story — News Magazines and Long Form for a segment called “Bitter Pills.”

IN PASSING

Rod Smith, the lead reporter on the gaming industry for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, died Dec. 14 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 60. Smith also wrote a weekly column in the Business section’s Sunday edition. Review-Journal biz editor Michael Hiesiger said Smith’s familiarity and interest in a variety of fields gave readers an uncommon insight into the gaming industry, according to the paper’s obit. “Rod brought a unique level of experience and background to the paper that the Business section never had before, and it will be very hard to ever duplicate that,” Hiesiger said. “His real value as the gaming editor for the R-J wasn’t that he knew about the gaming industry. He also knew about all the other industries and business leaders in town, and that meant he often got more details and different perspectives on casino issues than anyone else.”

Dick Marlowe, who wrote a business column for the Orlando Sentinel for nearly two decades, died in late December from complications related to a stroke. He was 76. Sentinel reporter Rich McKay wrote, “For about two decades — usually five days a week — Marlowe wrote a business column for the Orlando Sentinel that was printed beneath a black-and-white photo of a graying man with a handlebar mustache. First as a reporter and then as a columnist, he chronicled the rise of Disney World and the hotel kings of International Drive, as this once-small citrus town traded its oranges for mouse ears and waterslides.”

Ed Shur, who in April left his position as the business editor of the Reno Gazette-Journal to become editor of two Ohio papers, died Dec. 27 at the age of 54. An Associated Press story noted that Shur, executive editor of The (Fremont) News-Messenger and the Port Clinton News Herald, was found dead at his home. A coroner said he died of hypertensive heart disease.

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Posted Jan. 31, 2007