BONUS Edition of Biz Buzz: New business editors in Baltimore, Wichita

By Chris Roush croush@email.unc.edu

NEW JOB FOR SABEW PRESIDENT AS SUN SHUFFLES BIZ DECK

Bernie Kohn, assistant managing editor for business at the Baltimore Sun and current president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, becomes the head of the paper’s investigations team.

His successor as biz editor is Trif Alatzas, (left) currently one of the two deputy biz editors at the paper. Alatzas has been a deputy since 2004 and previously served as real estate editor. He was also business editor at the Wilmington (Del.) News-Journal before going to the Sun.

The other deputy biz editor, Georgia Marudas, is taking the buyout after 22 years at The Sun and Evening Sun, the last 15 of them as an assistant or deputy biz editor.

The deputy slots will not be filled, and the business news department becomes a team within the paper’s main news operations.

In addition, two reporters are departing the biz desk. Laura McCandlish is leaving the paper to relocate to Oregon with her husband, and Paul Adams is leaving to go into PR at Constellation Energy.

Also, Tricia Bishop, who has covered technology companies and written page 1 business profiles, becomes the federal courts reporter. Assistant business editor Don Schiller becomes night metro editor. Neither will be replaced.

Finally, personal tech columnist Mike Himowitz takes the paper's buyout offer and retires.

BUYOUTS AT THE ATLANTA BIZ DESK

Four members of the business desk at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, including longtime columnist Maria Saporta, have accepted the paper’s buyout offer.

The others are business team leader Kathy Brister, tech columnist Bill Husted, health care and biotech reporter Bill Hendrick, designer Paige Oliver Taylor and auto editor – and former business editor – Rob Douthit.

Saporta (left) has written a column for the paper for nearly two decades, chronicling the movers and shakers in the Atlanta business community. Before becoming a business columnist in 1991, Saporta was a biz reporter for the newspaper. She spent eight years covering various beats, including economic development, international business, conventions, tourism, the Georgia Dome, Underground Atlanta, and the Coca-Cola Co.

Brister was responsible for the business reporter clusters and a cluster of reporters on the state desk. She had been a technology editor at the paper.

Husted had been with the paper since 1990 and wrote the popular Technobuddy column that was syndicated in paper's around the country.

Hendrick, who joined the paper in March 1979, was an assistant biz editor for about six years, and was founding editor in 1983 of the paper’s Business Monday section.

“I’m remembered by a few friends for predicting the stock market crash of ‘87 with a three-day series of front page stories entitled, ‘Is the bubble about to burst?’” says Hendrick. “It did two months later. And I covered that, too, from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and an old computer with acoustic cups.”

Taylor has been at the paper since April 2002, and she had been an assistant business editor who led a team of reporters who covered economic development, commercial/residential real estate, work place and markets until the reorganization last year. She now oversees visuals for the business section.

Douthit writes and edits weekly auto reviews and trend stories about the automotive industry. Douthit also leads coverage of the metro Atlanta area’s fast-growing northern and western communities, including Cobb County, northern Fulton County and Forsyth County. He also previously served as a business editor for the Journal-Constitution.

BIZ DESK JOB CHANGES IN DETROIT

Randy Essex, the business editor at the Detroit Free Press, has been promoted to assistant managing editor for business and politics at the paper in an attempt to further align its political and economic coverage.

In addition, auto editor Jamie Butters (right) becomes business and auto editor, overseeing the daily business news operations of the paper. Butters has also been an automotive reporter at the paper. He previously worked for the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan in 2006.

Essex had previously been assistant managing editor of the Des Moines Register, where his responsibilities included overseeing Iowa caucus coverage in 2000 and 2004, before joining the Free Press in 2006.

NEW BIZ EDITOR IN LOVE IN WICHITA

Dan Loving has been named the business editor of the Wichita Eagle, replacing Tom Shine, who becomes deputy editor for news at the paper.

Loving is originally from the Kansas City area and graduated from Missouri State University with a degree in communications in 1992. He began his career at the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader while in college before moving on to newspapers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He came to The Eagle12 years ago and was previously the assistant business editor. Loving (left) tells Biz Buzz that the Wichita business section is actually looking to expand its coverage.

“Our business section had been in our local/state section forever,” says Loving. “About two years ago, however, we started Business Today, a stand-alone Thursday section that runs about 12 pages most weeks. Prior to that, we also increased the size of our staff, adding two veteran reporters to the staff. I came over from sports as assistant business editor before the launch of Business Today.

“Business Today has been quite a hit with the business community, and there is talk that we might add a day in the future,” adds Loving. “We eliminated most of our stock listings about two weeks ago and now use that space for stories, which essentially gives us two pages inside local/state on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. We have three pages on Sunday.”

BOSS WATCH

Andrew Dowell becomes editor of global news coverage for Dow Jones Newswires. As deputy ME for North American equities, Dowell has overseen breaking news coverage for Dow Jones and served as Newswires’ chief U.S. coverage coordinator with Wall Street Journal editors. Also at Dow Jones, Phyllis Plitch has been named to the new position of managing editor of investment management. Pitch returns to Dow Jones from Moody’s Investors Service, where she has served as a vice president since June 2006…Sarah Lopez Williams becomes deputy biz editor at The Sacramento Bee. Williams had been the features editor, a spot now filled by former biz editor Cathie Anderson…Tony Quesada (left) becomes ME at the Austin Business Journal in Texas. He had been a senior reporter at its sister paper, the Jacksonville Business Journal, in Florida.

UPPER EAST SIDE

Simon Constable joins Dow Jones Newswires from TheStreet.com to write a new column about the commodities markets. At TheStreet.com, Constable (right) was a senior correspondent writing about commodities and currencies. Part of his work there involved creating video and podcasts…Anne Tergesen joins The Wall Street Journal to cover retirement issues. She had been at BusinessWeek….Tara Siegel Bernard joins the New York Times to cover personal finance. She had been deputy ME of the personal finance Web site FiLife.com…Missy Frederick joins the Washington Business Journal to cover retail, tourism and hospitality. Frederick had been a biz reporter at the Washington Examiner…Kayla Tausche joins the Financial Times in New York to write about M&A in the energy, power and precious metals industries.

WAY DOWN SOUTH

Dan Fitzpatrick, a business reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, joins The Wall Street Journal’s Atlanta bureau. Fitzpatrick worked for the Post-Gazette for 10 years. He is a 1994 graduate of the University of Missouri…Susan Miller joins the South Florida Business Journal as web editor. She previously worked at the newspaper as a reporter and most recently was a videographer for the Palm Beach Post. Former web editor Kate Howell has moved to Orlando…Bob Koslow joins the Daytona Beach News-Journal business desk from the now defunct DeLand bureau as a business writer and will assist with editing of the daily ‘Your Money’ pages. Joe Crews also joins the biz desk from the DeLand bureau as a business writer and will assist with editing the Sunday ‘Your Money’ and Real Estate sections.

MIDWEST MOVES

Corrinne Hess joins The Milwaukee Business Journal as its health care reporter. Previously, Hess was a reporter with the Daily Herald in northern Illinois where she worked since January 2006. Previously, Corrinne had worked at the Kenosha News and Waukesha Freeman.

WEST COAST WAVES

The San Francisco Business Times hires Lindsay Riddell to cover the clean tech/green business beats. Riddell most recently covered venture capital for the San Jose Business Journal. She replaces Elizabeth Browne, who returns to freelancing. The Business Times also hires Blanca Torres as its East Bay real estate and economic development reporter. Torres previously was retail reporter for the Contra Costa Times. She replaces Ryan Tate, who joined Gawker.com as a media blogger.

AT THE GLOSSIES

Amy Feldman joins BusinessWeek as associate editor of personal business. Feldman spent the past three years freelancing — contributing to Inc., Fast Company, Institutional Investor, The New York Times, and BusinessWeek—and was also a part-time senior editor for the World Policy Journal…Fortune Small Business cuts 14 of its 17 editorial positions, including that of editor Dan Goodgame. Editorial director Brian Dumaine remains to put out the glossy with freelancers.

IN MEMORY

Frederic Wiegold, a senior editor at Bloomberg Markets magazine, dies in late July. Wiegold had been New York bureau chief for Bloomberg and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He joined Bloomberg in 2002. Wiegold also edited The Wall Street Journal Lifetime Guide to Money, and he was the personal finance editor at The Journal…Albert Fleming, who covered the auto industry for a number of publications, including the Detroit Free Press, has died. He was 78…June Johnson, a former business reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, dies in July from a heart attack. She was 67 and was a biz reporter at the paper from 1991 to 1998… Martha McKay, (left) a business reporter for the Bergen Record in New Jersey, has died at the age of 46 from cancer. McKay covered technology and telecommunications.

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Posted July 31, 2008