Charlotte business editor heads to New York Times to be finance editor

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Charlotte Observer managing editor Cheryl Carpenter sent out the following announcement to the staff on Monday:

It’s with both pride and sorrow that I tell you that Patrick Scott has accepted an editing position with the New York Times. He will join the Business Day section of the Times as finance editor.

Patrick has worked here at the Observer for 20 years, starting as a reporter in South Carolina, before becoming an editor in our bureaus, then in local news, then in business. Patrick learned to be an editor here; he learned all about business news here; and he learned to lead here. He worked very hard to get to this extraordinary point in his career, but I know that Patrick would agree that he’s had help along the way from great reporters and editing colleagues.

He has made us proud in innumerable ways, through awards and citations galore, including the Pulitzer finalist Sold a Nightmare that he helped bring home. But what we think he is most famous for is his sense of justice that drives him to make wrongs right in our community. No journalism award can ever give adequate credit to that kind of impact. He helped edit stories that made bankers stop and think and perhaps even behave differently; that made exploiters of poor people halt their practices; that made immigrants feel as though someone was listening and telling their story; that drew the attention of federal regulators to foul practices that hurt our community.

He has been part of teams that won Loebs, Headliner awards, a Robert F. Kennedy and more SABEWs than we ever had.

His first job in journalism was as a correspondent at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he cut his teeth on cops and courts and local government.

His latest triumph is becoming a triathlete. He has done the famous Ironman, then did a second 140.6-mile race where he reduced his time by an hour and a half.

He and his wife, Susan, who works as a middle-school teacher, have two daughters they raised in their lovely home in Rock Hill. Jenna, his oldest, is now living in New York, working in fashion PR; the younger daughter, Michaela, is in college in Charleston.  Patrick’s last day here will be April 15.

If you’re interested in editing a group of very fine reporters, please see Cheryl or Rick.