Baltimore Biz Journal publisher to step down

Baltimore Business Journal Publisher James Breiner is stepping down after 11 years at the helm of the newspaper, according to an article on the paper’s Web site.

Breiner, 55, has accepted a Knight International Press Fellowship in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where he will work with students and journalists. The nine-month fellowship will run from September through next June. Breiner, whose last day is July 14, informed his staff of his plans in a Monday morning meeting.

He called the decision to leave the American City Business Journals’ paper a hard one to make. His youngest child recently graduated from college, and Breiner — who has studied Spanish for a dozen years and also speaks Italian and French — thought 2006 would be the best time to pursue a new opportunity with an international scope.

Breiner would not disclose revenues for the Journal, which employs 30, but said the paper was one of 11 in the 41-paper ACBJ chain to win a corporate “Eagle” award in 2005, the company’s highest award for excellence in business performance.

Breiner came to Baltimore in 1995 after a seven-year stint as editor of the Business First of Columbus (Ohio), another ACBJ paper. He worked as a reporter at the Columbus Dispatch from 1977 to 1988, covering politics, government and public affairs. He also started an investigative reporting team that won five awards for the daily newspaper.

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