Patti Bond, a business reporter who covered Home Depot for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, resigned on Wednesday for an internal communications job at the world’s largest home improvement retailer.
Bond said, “It all came together very quickly and I had to give notice here earlier than I normally would have because of the sensitivity. It’s strictly internal — no external, PR or media interaction.”
Bond was one of the rare business reporters who had actually spent time in the business world. She worked a decade in banking and accounting before returning to school to get a journalism degree from the University of Florida.
Bond starts her new job on Jan. 7. A replacement has not been named. Bond had been at the paper for a decade, covering retailing and business trends and strategies. Her resignation follows the departure of the paper’s Coke reporter, Duane Stanford, last month, for a job at Bloomberg News.
For Home Depot, Bond will be an editor and writer for a new employee newsletter that is launching in February, and do some executive communications.
Disclosure: I covered Home Depot for the AJC, wrote a book about Home Depot, and have also talked to Bond every once in a while about stories.
