CNBC.com hires two new editors

CNBC.com managing editor Jeffrey McCracken sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:

I am pleased to announce two new hires to the growing CNBC.com newsroom.

First, Riya Bhattacharjee has been hired as a hotseat editor for our San Francisco bureau. As part of her job, Riya will help manage our website in the evenings when later breaking news hits. 

Previously, Riya was digital managing editor for NBC Bay Area in San Francisco. There, she managed a team of digital editors, producers and video journalists while overseeing breaking news coverage for NBC Bay Area.com and its social platforms. Over the last five years, Riya has reported on and led the site’s breaking news coverage of major national stories, including the YouTube shooting and two of California’s most destructive and deadly wildfires, for which her team received a national Edward R. Murrow award. 

Before NBC, she was an editor and producer for MSN News at Microsoft, where she was part of its first team of reporters, writing about tech, business, national and world news.

Born in Calcutta, India, Riya received her master’s in journalism and mass communication from Point Park University in Pittsburgh. She got her bachelor’s from Presidency University in India. When she’s not breaking news, you can find Riya obsessively live-tweeting news, tech and sports @loislane28 (including the NBA Finals – this was her third time covering the championship). She also loves reading, watching crime movies and traveling.

Our second new hire is Al Lewis, who joins CNBC.com as a markets editor, editing stories on markets, investing, banking and energy for John Melloy’s team in Englewood Cliffs.

Previously, Al was business editor for the Houston Chronicle, overseeing a team of reporters covering energy, economics and finance in one of America’s fastest-growing cities.

In his career of more than three decades, Al has been a columnist forThe Wall Street Journal Sunday, MarketWatch, Dow Jones Newswires and The Denver Post. He also formerly served as business editor of The Denver Post.

Over the years, Al has won numerous awards, including honors from the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists, Colorado Press Association and Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Al, a native of Illinois, earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, as well as a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. When he is not proudly tracking his son’s experiences as a Division 3 basketball player, he is skiing, snowboarding or hiking.

Please welcome Riya and Al to the newsroom. Both will start in July.