Biz Buzz for January 2008: Major reorganization at BusinessWeek

By Chris Roush croush@email.unc.edu

BUSINESSWEEK REORGANIZES EDITORIAL

BusinessWeek editor in chief Stephen Adler announces a reorganization of the weekly biz glossy’s print operations, naming “chiefs” to be in charge of print and online coverage for specific coverage areas.

In addition, Adler named managing editors for the magazine and for its web site. Ciro Scotti becomes ME of the magazine, and Martin Keohan becomes ME of the Web site.

“The new structure will enable us to collaborate more effectively, take greater advantage of everyone’s abilities, learn new skills, and serve our readers and Web users better,” said Adler in a memo to staff members.

The chief editors are news chief Brian Bremner, finance/personal finance chief Frank Comes, small business chief Jim Ellis (left), tech chief Peter Elstrom, science chief Neil Gross, corporations/workplace chief Mary Kuntz, innovation chief Bruce Nussbaum and global and policy chief Chris Power.

In other new assignments from the reorganization, Dan Beucke becomes BusinessWeek.com news director, reporting to Bremner, and Suzanne Woolley becomes senior editor for personal finance, reporting to Comes.

The changes, however, also brought some layoffs and buyots. Leaving the magazine are national correspondent Anthony Bianco, photo director Larry Lippman, associate editor Amy Dunkin, senior editor Jeff Laderman, and Gail Edmondson, a senior correspondent in the Frankfurt bureau.

Scotti joined BusinessWeek in 1978, after reporting stints at daily newspapers. Since 2005, he was an assistant ME, “deftly overseeing production of the magazine, writing the very best cover headlines, and casting a sharp editorial eye over all our copy,” wrote Adler. Previously, he was a senior editor, responsible for the copy desk and for government and sports business coverage.

Since 2003, Keohan served as director of editorial operations for BusinessWeek.com. Before that, he was editorial director for BusinessWeek Events, where he created the BW50 Forum and the CEO Summit Series.

CHANGES AT PHILLY INQUIRER NEWS DESK

Philadelphia Inquirer biz editor Tony Gnoffo announced a number of changes to the business desk.

Joe DiStefano, who returned to the paper after a stint at Bloomberg News, takes on a new beat called “Deals.” He now covers commercial development plans and the behind-the-scenes investors who shape Philadelphia business. He also helps other beat reporters writing about corporate deals such as acquisitions and asset sales.

Bob Fernandez, who has been explaining the regional economy to Inquirer readers for more than 10 years, now covers Comcast and the world of communications and media.

Added Gnoffo: “Finally, I’m delighted to report that Rhonda Dickey will return to the Business Desk on Monday, Dec. 10, as late editor to handle updates, late-breaking stories, and compile the daily Business News in Brief column and other essential components of our 7-day-per-week business report.”

SWASY LEAVES DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Alecia Swasy, AME of Dow Jones Newswires, heads to The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., where she will be ME, overseeing a staff of about 140.

In an e-mail, she tells Biz Buzz: “I’m thrilled to be joining such a terrific team of journalists at The News Journal.”

Swasy (right) previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, St. Petersburg Times and the Virginian Pilot, where she worked with SABEW board member Bill Choyke.

At the Virginian Pilot, she was deputy managing editor. Previously, Swasy was assistant managing editor for business at the Times, where she had also served as business editor. In addition, she has worked as a writer for both the Pittsburgh and Atlanta bureaus of The Journal and was editor of The Daily Collegian at Penn State University.

She also wrote “Changing Focus: Kodak and the Battle to Save a Great American Company” and “Soap Opera: The Inside Story about Procter & Gamble.”

BOSS WATCH

Phil Kuntz, previously deputy money & investing editor at The Wall Street Journal, joins Bloomberg News to become senior editor focusing on government and political stories…David McHugh, bureau chief for the Associated Press in Germany and Poland, becomes the AP’s biz editor for Europe. He replaces Amy Finkelstein, who becomes an editor for the biz news department in New York after three years in London…John Lippman, who has covered the business of Hollywood for The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, as well as worked in public relations, returns to the Times to be the editor of the entertainment pod on the business desk…Caron Schwartz Ellis, the news editor of the Boulder County Business Report in Colorado, leaves to join Lynott & Associates, a Westminster-based PR firm that specializes in high-tech companies…George Spohr becomes biz editor at the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y. He had been assistant biz editor at the Press & Sun Bulletin in Binghamton… Executive editor Bill Thompson and managing editor Anna Caplan have both left the Fort Worth Business Press… Mark Sutter, an editor with 18 years of experience at the News & Record of Greensboro, becomes the new editor of The Triad Business Journal. While at the News & Record, Sutter, a Detroit native, was business reporter, business editor, public affairs editor, city editor and most recently, director of special publications…Wall Street Journal Detroit bureau chief Joe White moves to the D.C. bureau to become a senior editor overseeing reporters covering energy, the environment and transportation…Smart Money editor Fleming Meeks returns to Barron’s to head up a new electronic newsletter division…Jennifer Merritt becomes Career Journal editor at The Wall Street Journal. She had been special projects editor at Money.

UPPER EAST SIDE

Fortune reporter Tim Arango leaves the magazine for the New York Times business desk to cover media companies…Palash Ghosh joins Dow Jones Newswires as its second Taking Stock columnist. Along with Spencer Jakab, he writes about broad trends in the equities markets. He had been a markets reporter with Standard & Poor’s for 16 years…Jackie Noblett joins the Boston Business Journal to cover technology and energy… James Covert joins the New York Post to cover retail. He had covered the beat for Dow Jones Newswires…Bruce Mohl, (right) the consumer reporter and consumer interest columnist on the Boston Globe’s biz desk, leaves the paper to become editor of CommonWealth magazine…Hartford Business Journal ME Ken St. Onge leaves the paper to become associate editor of Insurance Journal…Dow Jones Newswires reporter David Enrich slides over to The Wall Street Journal to cover Citigroup… Melissa Castro joins the Washington Business Journal to cover commercial real estate. Also, Darlene Darcy joins the paper to cover technology.

WAY DOWN SOUTH

Mary Shedden, the retail reporter at The Tampa Tribune, becomes the health and fitness writer for The Trib’s 4You section. She is replaced by Jerry Stockfisch, who had worked in the paper’s Tallahassee bureau and earlier had a stint on the biz desk...Jeff Amy becomes a business reporter at the Mobile Press-Register. He had previously been on the city desk and replaces George Talbot, who becomes the paper’s political editor… Jeanne Sturiale, formerly of the Winston-Salem Journal’s business news team, joins Annese Public Relations Inc. in Winston-Salem as a senior writer…Ron Stodghill, (left) a writer for the Sunday business section at the New York Times, leaves the paper to become editorial director of six magazines published by the Charlotte Observer. Stodghill had been living in Charlotte while working for the Times.

MIDWEST MOVES

New York-based Dow Jones Newswires reporter Wailin Wong joins the Chicago Tribune as technology reporter based in Chicago…Jeffrey Sheban moves to the features department from the biz desk at the Columbus Dispatch…Stephane Fitch becomes Chicago bureau chief of Forbes. Fitch had been European bureau chief…Kim Lyons joins the Pittsburgh Business Times to cover manufacturing and technology. Lyons has been a senior reporter with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Erin Lawley also joins the Business Times to cover accounting, engineering, environmental, transportation, utilities and sports business. Lawley had been with the Nashville Business Journal…Denver Post biz reporter Julie Dunn leaves to become a senior account manager at The Heedum Agency.

WEST COAST WAVES

Jessica Hodgson joins Dow Jones Newswires’ San Francisco bureau as its new software reporter. For nearly three years, Hodgson served as the Newswires’ media reporter in London…Anita Malik becomes web ME for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism’s web site, www.businessjournalism.org. In addition, Arizona Republic reporter Kelly Carr becomes the web site’s assistant editor…Jason Schaff, (right) editor of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, resigns after four years. A replacement has not been named.

ON THE AIR

Louise Pennell becomes the LA-based correspondent for Fox Business Network…David Pogue becomes a contributor to CNBC, providing tech gadget reviews. Pogue also covers tech gadgets for the New York Times.

GLOSSY GOINGS

Daniel Roth, who joined Conde Nast Portfolio from Fortune, leaves the new business magazine for Wired as a senior writer. Also, Kyle Pope becomes articles editor at Portfolio. …Matthew Craft, an editor at Institutional Investor, joins Forbes as a reporter…Betsy Schiffman becomes a staff writer for Wired covering new media. Schiffman has been with the AP covering semiconductors…Lesley Ann Beck becomes managing editor of BBQ: Berkshire Business Quarterly, a new magazine published by Berkshire Living in western Massachusetts.

WEB SITE WAVES

Biz news web site MarketWatch names Therese Poletti (right) as tech columnist and Benjamin Pimentel as tech reporter. Poletti was an award-winning staff writer at the San Jose Mercury News for the last seven years. Pimentel, previously a reporter with 14 years at the San Francisco Chronicle, covers manufacturers and fabrication equipment vendors in the semiconductor industry… Colin Barr, previously companies editor for TheStreet.com, joins Fortune.com as a senior writer.

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE

The National Association of Real Estate Editors names Alan J. Heavens (left) of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Seattle-based freelance writer Jane Hodges, who writes for Dow Jones and the Seattle Times, as winners of the Sixth Annual NAREE Bivins Fellowship… CNBC and PBS each won two Emmys Tuesday at the Fifth Annual Emmy Awards for Business & Financial Reporting at a luncheon in New York, while networks CNN, CBS and NBC each won one award.

IN MEMORIAM

John McAuley, (right) the senior economics writer at Dow Jones Newswires, dies in late November at the age of 60 from cardiac arrest shortly after making an appearance on the Fox Business Network to discuss a recent column…Mike Augspurger, the business editor of the Burlington Hawk Eye in Iowa, dies at the age of 52 in late November. Augspurger had been with the paper, the oldest daily in the state, since 1994…Riley Wilson, the former business editor of the Tulsa World, dies in late November at the age of 76 from prostate cancer… Phil Porter, a Columbus Dispatch biz reporter during the past two decades, dies from cancer at the age of 56.

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Posted Dec. 21, 2007