AP names assistant biz editor

Associated Press business editor Lisa Gibbs sent the following announcement to the staff:

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Philana Patterson is being promoted to Assistant Business Editor, effective immediately.

In her new role, Philana will become more deeply involved in guiding the daily news report, ambitious enterprise and strategic initiatives. She will work closely with Brad and me in all of these areas and, of course, get the opportunity to work closely with many more of you.

Philana’s journalistic and leadership skills have been evident in her stellar management of the spot news team, small business product and earnings automation initiative. She has also served as the BIZ department’s Stylebook liaison and is a member of the AP’s Stylebook committee.

She joined AP in 2007 as an editor on the spot news desk and in 2010 became co-Team Leader for spot news, along with Jennifer Malloy. Prior to joining the AP, Philana served as interactive media editor at blackenterprise.com, held various reporting and producing jobs at Bloomberg and worked as a retail reporter at Dow Jones Newswires. She has also worked for The Daily Press in Newport News, Va. and The Greenville News in Greenville, S.C.

She graduated Northwestern University in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.