Arwood named Charlotte Observer business editor

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

John Arwood, the current page one editor at the Charlotte Observer, has been named the paper’s business editor, managing editor Cheryl Carpenter confirmed to Talking Biz News on Saturday.

He replaces Patrick Scott, who left the paper on April 15 to become finance editor at the New York Times.

In an e-mail Saturday, Arwood said, “Patrick left big shoes to fill …He’s a great guy; we go back a long time together. I was his editor back in the ’90s when he was a reporter in the Observer’s South Carolina bureau.”

Arwood starts in his new position on Monday.

Arwood will be assisted by longtime business reporter Rick Rothacker, who will play a new role within the Observer business news team. He will continue to cover banking, but will also operate as a “player-coach” in business news, helping with news judgment and editing.

Arwood has been page one editor since November 2007. In that role, he has has overall responsibility for newsroom operations at night, selecting and editing content for the front page, and supervising the national desk.

He’s been at  the Observer since January 1993, first as a regional copy desk chief and then as an assigning editor. Arwood is known for his sense of storytelling, his advocacy for clarity and context, his knowledge of public policy and his love of learning new things.

Before that, Arwood was an assistant news editor at the Arkansas Gazette and a reporter at the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway, Ark.

Arwood has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Central Arkansas and a master’s degree from the University of Missouri, where he also worked as an instructor.