BusinessWeek AME returns to WSJ

Paul Barrett, who had been with BusinessWeek as an assistant managing editor for the past 15 months, is leaving the weekly to return to The Wall Street Journal, according to a memo from editor Stephen Adler.

Adler wrote, “I’m sad to report that Assistant Managing Editor (and investigative guru) Paul Barrett is returning to The Wall Street Journal to write on non-business topics for the front page. We will miss his leadership and steady hand on such outstanding projects as the poverty series, green-washing, and cyber-crime.

“I’ll also especially miss his thoughtfulness and good counsel on a wide range of issues. BusinessWeek, of course, remains deeply committed to investigative journalism, and we will continue to pursue ambitious, tough-minded investigations that provide great value to our readers and to the broader community.”

Barrett has reported and edited for the Journal from 1987 to 2005, with stints as a reporter in Philadelphia, New York and Washington. He has been U.S. Supreme Court correspondent, deputy legal editor and, for the past five years, a leading editor of Page One stories. Three of his own articles have been nominated by the newspaper for the Pulitzer Prize, and his 2003 piece on immigrant Muslim students in the U.S. won a 2004 Missouri School of Journalism Lifestyle Award.

The memo was posted first here on the Romenesko site.