Titunik returns to NY Times biz news desk

New York Times business editor Ellen Pollock sent out the following on Monday:

I’m thrilled to announce that Vera Titunik is joining the Business department.

Really, I should be saying rejoining.

For the last three years, Vera has been deputy editor at Headway here at The Times, where she edited enterprise stories delving into national and community challenges and solutions.

During a previous 13-year stint at The Times, Vera was an editor at the Magazine and Sunday Business editor.

During the four or so years in between, she was executive editor at newyorker.com and then the features editor at Wired.

Once upon a time Vera worked at The American Lawyer magazine, former home to me and Jim Stewart, although we did not overlap.

In Biz, Vera will work with a group of reporters focused on feature writing and beat reporting. Her reporters will produce stories for Sunday Business and the daily report. Vera is already well acquainted with some of the reporters she will work with. She was David Segal’s editor and last year she worked with Conor Dougherty on a Headway story about an unusual public housing experiment in Maryland. That story ran in Sunday Business.

“I begged her not to leave. I’m overjoyed that she’s back,” David said.

I’m glad about Vera joining us for multiple reasons — including that while at Businessweek, I tried to recruit both Vera and Noreen Malone. And now they are both in Biz.

But Matt Thompson, Headway’s editor, really summed up why I’m happy that Vera is joining Biz: “Vera is among the most humane, diligent, thoughtful and creative editors I know. She’s a gift to work with, and I’m glad she’s not going far.”

Please welcome Vera. She starts today.