BusinessWeek staff, one year later: Where are they now?

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

One year ago today, Bloomberg L.P. acquired BusinessWeek magazine, renaming it Bloomberg Businessweek.

As part of the deal, dozens of BusinessWeek staffers lost their jobs, either by layoffs or via buyouts. Others left soon after. Some found other jobs, but some did not. It was the biggest upheaval of business journalists in the past decade. While many of them found jobs in business journalism, others left for jobs in public relations or on Wall Street.

Here is what the staff under McGraw-Hill’s ownership is now doing, based on Talking Biz News’ research.

Editor in chief Steve Adler is now at Thomson Reuters, where he is the senior vice president and editorial director of the Professional division. Jessica Sibley, the publisher for the past two years, left the magazine for a similar post with The Week.

John Byrne, the former editor in chief of BusinessWeek.com and executive editor of BusinessWeek, has launched a new site covering graduate business schools called Poets&Quants.com. The other executive editor, Ellen Pollock, remains with the magazine.

Managing editor Ciro Scotti left in the fall and is now freelancing. Assistant managing editor Rob Hunter is now the personal finance editor at The Wall Street Journal. Associate editor Spencer Ante is now at The Journal as deputy bureau chief of its New York corporate coverage.

Michael Mandel, who was BusinessWeek’s chief economist, has launched two business ventures: South Mountain Economics, which houses his research, consulting, and writing on innovation and growth; and Visible Economy, a company that is producing news stories and videos on economic news that can be used in classrooms and other venues. In addition, Mandel is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington and a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School’s Mack Center for Technological Innovation.

Personal finance editor Lauren Young is now the wealth management editor at Reuters. Former tech columnist Steve Wildstrom is now blogging about tech here, as is former San Francisco bureau chief Rob Hof here.

Jena McGregor, the former management editor, is now writing a blog about management issues for the Washington Post. Innovation and design editor Michael Arndt is now the managing editor of Crain’s Chicago Business. Former engagement editor Shirley Brady is now editor in chief of BrandChannel.com.

Tom Lowry, the media editor at BusinessWeek, is now the New York bureau chief for Variety. Cathy Arnst, who covered science and medicine for the magazine, is now vice president and health content director of national health media at Edelman PR. Former media columnist Jon Fine is now an on-air commentator for CNBC. Wall Street columnist Gene Marcial now writes a similar column for AOL’s DailyFinance.com.

Michelle Conlin, a former senior writer at BusinessWeek, is now a national writer at The Associated Press, based in New York City. She left BusinessWeek in March after the acquisition. Ellen Gibson, also a former BW staffer, recently left Bloomberg News to join the AP as well. Writer Moira Herbst is now with Reuters covering legal issues.

Senior writer Emily Thornton left in May and became the director of research in the corporate risk division of Oliver Wyman, a consulting firm. Numbers editor Tara Kalwarski left in April to work in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s strategy group. Senior writer Steve Hamm is now a communications strategist at IBM. Helen Walters, the former editor of innovation and design at Bloomberg Businessweek, now working with Doblin/Monitor Innovation.

Former banking and finance editor Mara Der Hovanesian is now a research analyst at money manager Vontobel Asset Management. Washington bureau chief Jane Sasseen is now editor-in-chief of politics and opinion for Yahoo News.

Art director Andrew Horton is creative director of Billboard at e5 Global Media Film Group.

David Henry, a senior writer and one of a handful of business journalists remaining from before Bloomberg bought the publication, resigned on Monday and is now looking for work.

Arik Hesseldahl, who covered Apple and other technology stories, recently left the magazine to be a tech reporter for All Things Digital, the Wall Street Journal’s tech site. Ben Levisohn and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, both BusinessWeek writes, now write for The Journal. They left after the deal closed.

Theo Francis, a reporter in Bloomberg’s Washington bureau who previously worked for BusinessWeek, left in February to work for Footnoted.org. Finance department editor Adrienne Carter left in February for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, but is now back in business journalism on the New York Times business desk.

Some of the magazine’s staffers moved over to Bloomberg’s wire service. Robin Ajello, a senior editor at the magazine, is now with Bloomberg News running the consumer companies coverage. Peter Elstrom, an assistant managing editor, is now with the wire as a team leader for media coverage. Burt Helm, a marketing writer for the magazine, is now working under Ajello and writing about restaurants. Matt Boyle, a corporate writer at BusinessWeek, is also working for Ajello, writing about retailers.

Other people who remain on the magazine staff in New York include assistant managing editor Paul Barrett, who is happily writing now rather than editing, and assistant managing editors Chris Power, Brian Bremner and James Ellis, who remain in editing positions. Also senior editor David Rocks, deputy news editor Cristina Lindblad, associate editor Louis Lavelle, and a bunch of copy desk people headed by copy desk chief Prudence Crowther and her deputies Marc Miller, Doug Royalty and Jim Taibi.

Suzanne Woolley, who was an editor at the magazine when it was acquired, remains with Bloomberg Businessweek, as does finance writer Roben Farzad. Los Angeles bureau chief Ron Grover is also still with the magazine, as is economics editor Peter Coy and tech writer Peter Burrows. Senior editor Diane Brady is still at the magazine too, as is writer Susan Berfield.

On Businessweek.com, the survivors include managing editor Martin Keohan, news director Dan Beucke, products director Charles DuBow, and special projects director Ira Sager, along with small biz chief Nick Leiber, top news deputy Justin Bachman, and staff writers Alison Damast and Venessa Wong.

Douglas MacMillan, who did the “App Economy” cover last year, joined Bloomberg and moved to the San Francisco bureau. Tom Giles, former Businessweek.com tech editor, and a former Bloomberg 10-year veteran, was promoted to technology team leader for Bloomberg News after the acquisition.

Others who have found a home at Bloomberg News include real estate writer Prashant Gopal, stocks writer Ben Steverma, David Welch in Detroit; Chris Palmeri in Los Angeles, news editor Harry Maurer, who lucked into a job in the Rio de Janeiro bureau; the excellent Frederik Balfour and Bruce Einhorn in Hong Kong, Stanley Reed in London; Dexter “Tiff” Roberts in Beijing, Carol Matlack in Paris, and Ian Rowley in Tokyo.

Olga Kharif, a tech writer for Businessweek.com based in Portland, Ore., remains with the magazine. Aaron Ricadela, a BW.com tech writer, remains as well, though he’s mostly on Bloomberg now.

Rachael King, another BW.com tech reporter remains and files both for Bloomberg News and Businessweek.com. Cliff Edwards, a veteran tech writer for the magazine, is now covering the video game industry as part of the entertainment team for Bloomberg News.

Fred Jespersen, who handled data projects for the magazine, is unique. He lost his job in the Bloomberg acquisition but was recently hired by Bloomberg to do a similar job on Bloomberg News.

Many others are now freelancing. They include former senior writer Pete Engardio, who is doing freelancing and consulting on global competitiveness issues. Kimberly Weisul is one of the former staffers now freelancing, as is former Atlanta bureau chief Dean Foust.

Senior writers Peter Carbonara and Nanette Byrnes are both now freelancing, as is former energy and environment editor Adam Aston. Former personal finance writer Amy Feldman is now writing a tax columnist for Reuters.com as a freelancer. John Carey, who covered science out of the Washington bureau, is also now freelancing. Senior writer Alrene Weintraub is now freelancing on health care, biotech and pharmaceuticals for Reuters.com and others.

Hardest hit have been the BusinessWeek photo and art staffs, which were completely wiped out. A lot of those people are still looking for work. Deputy photo editor Scott Mlyn is now freelancing and pitching a book of his own photography.

If there’s anyone left out, please let me know.