Biz Buzz for April 2008: Changes at the AP and in Boston

By Chris Roush croush@email.unc.edu

AP BIZ EDITOR LEAVING

Kevin Noblet, business editor for The Associated Press, leaves the wire service on March 14. He had been in that position since 2004 and has worked for AP for more than 27 years. Noblet (below) would not disclose his next job.

A replacement has not been named, but deputy business editor Chuck Hawkins, who has worked at Bloomberg News and BusinessWeek, is a likely candidate to be his successor. Hawkins has directed the day-to-day operations of AP business news since 2004.

Noblet has been a board member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers since 2005, and was selected earlier this year to join the SABEW officers ladder, meaning he would become president in 2011.

Noblet was deputy business editor from 2000 to 2004, and previously was deputy international editor for six years, a period during which AP won two Pulitzers for overseas-related coverage. During his four years in charge of the business news department, its staffing grew from 27 to more than 100 and the specialty services AP Financial News and Money & Markets were launched.

A native of Stamford, Conn., Noblet worked for newspapers in Connecticut before joining the AP in 1980 in New Orleans. He reported for AP from Latin America and the Caribbean for nearly a decade, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile, where he was chief of bureau, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Noblet graduated from Concordia College in Bronxville, N.Y. He was a 1990-91 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and was the Scripps Visiting Professional at Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism for 1999-2000.

NEW BIZ EDITOR IN BOSTON

Frank Quaratiello becomes the new business editor at the Boston Herald, replacing Greg Gatlin, who left to work at a university in Boston.

Quaratiello, an 11-year veteran of the paper, has worked as deputy biz editor for the past two years. Before that, he was business copy desk chief.

“Frank’s distinguished himself as a creative, first-rate editor in every position he’s held at the Herald,” said Editor Kevin R. Convey in a story in the paper announcing the promotion. “I know that, under his direction, the paper’s business section will become even more of a must-read.”

“We’ve got a talented staff,” said Quaratiello in the same story. “I look forward to working with them to shake things up a bit and tell the stories of the Boston business community.”

A graduate of Stanford University, Quaratiello was a reporter and editor at several small California newspapers. He worked as an editor at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire before coming to the Herald.

CNET’S NEW BOSS

Dan Farber becomes editor-in-chief of technology industry news service CNET News.com. He replaces Jai Singh, senior vice president and editor-in-chief of CNET.com, who left the organization March 10.

Farber (left) has more than than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist, primarily covering technology and new media.

“CNET News.com has a tradition of great journalism and pioneering new media. I’m looking forward to working with the CNET News.com team,” said Farber in a statement.

Previously, Farber was vice president of editorial at ZDNet, where he built ZDNet into one of the biggest voices in business technology. Farber also co-developed the ZDNet Blog Network, with more than 30 bloggers including some of the most authoritative and well-respected voices in the IT community. He joined ZDNet in 1996, and led the development of ZDNet’s worldwide network of more than 70 technology-focused sites.

Prior to joining ZDNet, Farber served as vice president and editor-in-chief at Ziff-Davis’ flagship computing news publications, PC Week and MacWeek. He was also a founding editor at MacWorld and part of the editorial staffs of PC World and PC Magazine.

“I am thrilled to have Dan as the editorial voice of CNET News.com,” said Joe Gillespie, executive vice president of CNET, in a statement. “Under Dan’s leadership, ZDNet became a place where today’s hottest issues around business technology are reported and debated.”

BOSS WATCH

Andre Jackson, (right) AME for business at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, announces he’s leaving the paper to become an editorial writer focusing on business and economic issues at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He begins his new job April 14…San Jose Mercury News deputy biz editor Stephen R. Trousdale replaces Rebecca Salner, who has accepted a buyout, as the paper’s business editor…Jane Seccombe, the business editor of the Winston-Salem Journal, leaves the paper for a corporate communications job at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. She had been at the paper since 1999…Eric Grunder, the money editor at the Stockton Record in California, moves to the opinions section after 17-plus years running the paper’s business coverage. Kevin Parrish now oversees business and metro coverage at the paper…The Harrisburg Patriot-News in Pennsylvania combines the business editor and news editor positions into one person who will oversee both departments. Tom Barstow, formerly biz editor, has become news editor. The position replaces city editor and includes new responsibilities…Tom Lovett becomes the new business editor at the Evansville Courier & Press in Indiana. He had been an assistant metro editor, and replaces Alan Julian, who retired in January.

UPPER EAST SIDE

Steve Bailey, (right) the longtime business columnist at the Boston Globe, leaves the paper to become an editor with Bloomberg News in London…David Cay Johnston, a New York Times business reporter who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for writing about taxes, accepts a buyout offer from the paper. Also at the Times, Stephanie Clifford joins the paper to cover advertising. She had been a senior writer for Inc… Richard Galant, an associate editor at Newsday and the “Money & Power” columnist in its business section, is leaving the paper at the end of the month…Tim McLaughlin joins the Boston Business Journal to cover financial services. He previously covered investment banking for Reuters in New York…Karen Rouse, previously a biz reporter for The Denver Post, leaves to join The Bergen Record in New Jersey to cover transportation. Former Cape Cod Times biz editor Stacey Myers joins the Boston Globe as a biz copy editor…Elizabeth Williamson joins The Wall Street Journal to cover lobbying and its impact on regulation. Williamson had been at the Washington Post. Also at The Journal, Jenny Strasburg joins the paper to cover hedge funds and asset management. She had been at Bloomberg News…Pam Allen joins the Albany Business Review to cover transportation, energy and the environment. Allen had been with the Daily Gazette in Saratoga County.

WAY DOWN SOUTH

John Helyar joins Bloomberg News in its Atlanta bureau as an enterprise reporter. Helyar previously worked for The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and ESPN The Magazine, and is a co-author of the seminal business book, “Barbarians at the Gate.”…Sara Clarke, previously as GA reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, is now covering tourism, hotels and small business.

IN THE HEARTLAND

Doug Cameron joins Dow Jones Newswires as a reporter in the Chicago bureau to cover railroads and trucking companies, as well as UPS and FedEx. Cameron had been with the Financial Times.The Detroit Free Press hires Brent Snavely, (left) senior reporter at Crain’s Detroit Business, as an auto writer. Snavely covered auto suppliers and the food and beverage industry for Crain’s, where he has worked since 1999.

WAY OUT WEST

Dean Takahashi (right) leaves his tech column at the San Jose Mercury News to become a tech columnist for VentureBeat, a web site that covers Silicon Valley that was founded by former Mercury News biz reporter Matt Marshall…Drew Combs, previously a staff writer for the Los Angeles Business Journal, joins The American Lawyer’s Los Angeles bureau as a staff reporter…Michael Clinebell leaves his slot as AME of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal…Long Beach Press-Telegram biz reporter Don Jergler becomes editor of magazine Real Estate Southern California. Jergler had been at the paper since 2002.

GLOSSY GOINGS

BusinessWeek legal affairs correspondent Douglas McCollam leaves the magazine’s Washington bureau.

ON THE AIR

Eric Bolling joins Fox Business Network as a contributor. Bolling previously appeared on CNBC…BBC appoints Maggie Shiels as its first permanent San Francisco technology reporter to cover Silicon Valley. Shiels has already covered Silicon Valley for the BBC on a freelance basis.

PASS THE ENVELOPE

The Charlotte Observer wins the George Polk Award in business reporting for its yearlong series on the area’s high rate of housing foreclosures and the questionable sales practices by Beazer Homes USA, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders…The Wall Street Journal wins the business and economics reporting category in the Scripps Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Awards. The Journal receives $10,000 and the William Brewster Styles award for its series “Debt Bomb,” which explained and analyzed the housing crisis for readers, telling the mortgage-market crash story from all sides…Newsday’s coverage of the mortgage crisis last year won first place in the business news coverage category of the National Headliner Awards.

IN MEMORY

Mary Myers, who became a business editor at the Chicago Sun-Times in the 1970s when female editors at major newspapers were uncommon, dies in February. She was 71. The Sun-Times hired Myers in 1973, and from 1978 until 1984 she was deputy financial editor. In the late 1980s, Myers also worked briefly on the financial copy desk and then as business editor at the Washington Post…C.M. Mortimer, a business reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review who covered the steel and coal industries, died in early March following surgery. He was 54.

Posted March 11, 2008