Biz Buzz for September 2007: New woman in charge for BW in DC

By Chris Roush croush@email.unc.edu

FROM NEW YORK TO DC

Jane Sasseen, a long-time reporter and editor at BusinessWeek, becomes the business glossy’s new Washington bureau chief.

Sasseen, (right) who officially started on July 1, has been commuting from New York. She replaces Eva Rodriguez, who was in the position for only a year before leaving to become an editorial writer at The Washington Post.

Most recently, Sasseen has been a national correspondent for the magazine, responsible for investigative projects. Before that, she was a senior editor, overseeing the news analysis and commentary section.

From February 1997 to December 1999, Sasseen was responsible for the magazine’s coverage of corporate strategies. She joined the magazine in 1985 as a staff writer from Forbes, but left a year later to become a freelance journalist in Paris.

After a stint at International Management magazine, she rejoined BusinessWeek in February 1995. She won a Gerald Loeb Award in 1997 and the National Women’s Political Caucus 1997 Exceptional Merit Media Award.

NEW BIZ EDITOR AT SUNSENTINEL

Anne Vasquez becomes business editor of the South Florida SunSentinel, replacing Gail DeGeorge, the current president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. DeGeorge became the Sunday editor in late May.

DME Patricia Thompson said, “Anne has done an outstanding job as Deputy Business Editor since she joined the SunSentinel last year.”

Vasquez joined the SunSentinel in January 2006. She recently completed a fellowship through the Newspaper Association of America’s Breakthrough: James K. Batten Leadership Program.

Before joining the SunSentinel, Vasquez was an editor and reporter at the San Jose Mercury News, a reporter at the Miami Herald, a reporter in an exchange program in Brazil, and a reporting intern at the Boston Globe. She’s served as secretary and at-large representative for the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Meanwhile, Vasquez names Paul Bomberger as the new deputy biz editor. In a memo, she wrote, “Since joining the department in 2006, Paul has helped raise the profile of the business section as the daily planning editor. He has supervised reporters who cover key topics, including insurance and real estate, and has worked closely with visual editors to help make the business section more accessible.”

NEW AME FOR BIZ IN SAN JOSE

Rebecca Salner, who has been at the San Jose Mercury News for the past 25 years, become’s the paper’s AME for business news.

Salner, 47, was named to the position one week after the paper laid off a number of journalists, including four from the business desk. She has been AME for investigative projects for the past three years.

She is a journalism graduate of San Francisco State University and came to the Mercury News as a reporter in 1982 from the San Francisco Examiner. She covered courts, government, politics and general assignment before becoming an editor.

As an AME, Salner has at various points overseen the national and foreign desks, the business news sections and the Sports section. She has also been food editor and served briefly as the paper’s AME for business in 2000. Among her many jobs at the newspaper was a stint as its first Silicon Valley life editor, which focused on what makes the region exceptional, and, before that, city editor.

The four business news desk staffers are laid off in July were venture capital reporter Constance Loizos, retail reporter Michele Chandler, workplace reporter Nicole Wong, and assistant business editor Steve Zuckerman.

WHOLESALE CHANGES AT THE OREGONIAN

The Oregonian business editor Ben Santarris announced a number of changes to his team, including a shuffling of beats on the desk.

Deputy business editor Scott Nelson leaves the business team to be team leader of a new breaking news team. Robbie DiMisio becomes an assistant team leader in business after leaving a similar role on the Portland team.

Reporter Jeff Manning leaves the investigative team to rejoin the business team to cover professional services. Reporter Helen Jung moves from covering the business of sports on the business team to being a reporter on the breaking news team.

Reporter Ryan Frank joins the business team to cover real estate and housing, after covering City Hall on the Portland team. Reporter Anne Saker joins the business team to cover workplace, after covering courts on the crime team.

Reporter Gail Kinsey Hill goes from covering sustainability on the business team to a similar role on the new sustainability team. Reporter Dylan Rivera moves from covering real estate and housing on the business team to covering transportation on the sustainability team.

NEW BIZ REPORTERS IN DENVER

A reorganization in the Denver Post newsroom adds three new reporters to the business news desk.
The new reporters are Elizabeth Aguilera, Karen Rouse and David Migoya. They began in mid-July. The business desk lost reporter Will Shanley to a PR job and Greg Griffin to the Knight-Bagehot program at Columbia University for a year. In addition, reporter Julie Dunn has been on maternity leave.

Aguilera, left, has covered urban affairs for the Post. A nature of Southern California, she has reported from Cuba and Mexico, as well as in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She used to work for the Orange County Register and the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Migoya is an original member of the paper’s projects team, which began in 2000. He’s a graduate of the City University of New York and has primarily focused on investigative reporting. His work has won awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Rouse, who speaks fluent Spanish, has covered education for the paper for four years and been at the Post for seven. She has also worked in the paper’s Douglas County and Araphoe County bureaus, and she was named print journalist of the year in 2006 by the Colorado Association of Black Journalists. She previously worked at the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Former assistant biz editor Christine Tatum, who leaves the biz desk to work on multimedia projects, says the three new reporters “will do fabulous work. Migoya, in particular, is super with FOI, and he has spent a lot of time paying attention to the local nonprofit community – a sector that hasn’t received much time and attention in our business pages.”

Lastly, Jeff Taylor, AME for business and enterprise at the Post, leaves to become San Francisco bureau chief and enterprise editor at Bloomberg News.

BOSS WATCH

At the Wall Street Journal, Connie Mitchell Ford, New York-based economics editor, becomes the paper’s real-estate and property bureau chief. David Wessel, deputy Washington bureau chief, also takes on a new role, becoming the Journal’s global economics editor…Eric Wieffering becomes AME for biz at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, replacing Duchesne Drew, who becomes AME for local news, overseeing the paper’s St. Paul coverage. Wieffering had been running the paper’s investigations team but is a former biz reporter at the paper…Mark Getzfred becomes interim finance editor at The New York Times. He replaces Jeffrey Cane, who leaves for a position at Portfolio.com…Jim Louderback leaves as editor of PC Magazine and is replaced by reviews editor Lance Ulanoff…Former BusinessWeek senior writer Rick Dunham becomes the Houston Chronicle’s Washington bureau chief.

UPPER EAST SIDE

Christopher Witkowsky joins Dow Jones Newswires to cover corporate restructuring and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Also joining the news wire is Matt Whittaker as a metals reporter on the commodities desk. He had been a business reporter for The Monitor in McAllen, Texas. At Dow Jones Newswires, Victoria Knight begins writing a Getting Personal column about the personal finance aspects of health care, and Evelyn Juan becomes the new Broker’s World columnist. She replaces Scott Stearns, who left for Moody’s Investors Service. Finally, Peter Gardet joins the news wire to cover foreign exchanges. He replaces Isabelle Lindenmayer, who leaves for a job at the Clinton Foundation…. Zach Goldfarb becomes The Washington Post’s new Fairfax County biz reporter. Goldfarb came to the Post as the political researcher in January 2006. Also at the Post, Federal Reserve reporter Nell Henderson moves to the personal finance beat…Suzy Jaggar now covers U.S. business out of New York for The Times of London… Sara Lepro, who covered retail banking and debt collection for BankNet360.com and Collection Technology magazine, both produced by Royal Media Group, joins The Associated Press as a reporter for its premium Financial News service. She’ll work on its new SEC filings desk in New York. AP Financial News also hires Stephen Bernard and Lauren LaCapra. Bernard worked for Royal Media, focusing on auto and home finance. He now covers investment banks, asset managers and other financial services companies in conjunction with the AP Wall Street team. LaCapra, a graphics manager and reporter for The Wall Street Journal, works on AP’s energy and transportation team, covering the airlines and oil services beats.

WAY DOWN SOUTH

Dave Szymanski joins the Gulf Coast Business Review as Tampa Bay editor. He previously had been publications editor at energy company TECO…. Jen DeGregorio joins the New Orleans Times-Picayune as a biz reporter from The Daily Record in Baltimore. She covers maritime and banking.

MIDWEST MOVES

Former Business First (Louisville, Ky.) editor Rebecca Ray becomes the editor of St. Louis CEO, a new monthly magazine from Anthem Publishing…Former SABEW Best in Business student winner Isabel Ordonez joins Dow Jones Newswires in Houston to cover energy…Bill Hethcock joins the Dallas Business Journal as a staff writer covering real estate. He was previously with the Colorado Springs Gazette. The DBJ also hires Lauren D’Avolio as a staff writer covering retail/hospitality and media/marketing. She was previously with the Collin County bureau of The Dallas Morning News. Sandra Zaragoza who previously covered those beats, is now with the Austin Business Journal.

OUT WEST

Angel Gonzalez joins the Seattle Times to cover biotechnology and alternative energy. He had covered energy for Dow Jones Newswires… Pacific Coast Business Times editor Henry Dubroff has been named a Stanford Media Fellow for fall 2008. He will spend a week on campus researching the economic and social impact of small business owners…Abigail Goodman at the Los Angeles Times shifts beats from retailing to covering how the business world is adapting to environmental issues.

AT THE GLOSSIES

New York Times media writer Richard Siklos, who has been covering the News Corp./Dow Jones & Co. negotiations, leaves the paper for Fortune magazine. BusinessWeek’s Jessi Hempel and TheStreet.com’s Peter Eavis also join Fortune…At Fast Company, Will Bourne moves to executive editor from deputy editor, with outgoing exec ed Keith Hammonds moving to contributing editor. Charles Fishman, (below) formerly a senior writer who won his second Loeb Award this year, becomes editor at large. Also, Fast Company hires Allegra-jo Lagani as ME, replacing Sharon Ludtke, who left…Geoff Lewis becomes executive editor at Fortune Small Business. He had been Penton Business Media group editorial director…Katie Porterfield joins Business Tennessee as a staff writer. She previously worked as a regional reporter for the Tuscaloosa News in Alabama…Senior editor Sam Grobert leaves Money magazine.

ONLINE ONGOINGS

Dow Jones Newswires reporter David Bogoslaw joins BusinessWeek Online to cover finance.

ON THE AIR

Howard Dicus of Honolulu-based Pacific Business News leaves the paper to appear on the KGMB-TV morning show. Dicus had been appearing on the KHON morning show as part of a partnership with the business newspaper.

AND THE WINNER IS…

The Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Marketwatch, The New York Times and Syracuse Post-Standard were winners of the 2007 Gerald Loeb Awards. Fast Company writer Charles Fishman and Boston Globe columnist Steve Bailey also received an award, considered the Pulitzer Prizes of business journalism. NBC News and CBS’ “60 Minutes” won in the television categories, while Chris Anderson was the business book winner for “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More” published by Hyperion Books.

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Posted Aug. 1, 2007