CoStar hires former Puget Sound Biz Journal editor Smith

Rob Smith

Real estate news and data company CoStar has hired former Puget Sound Business Journal editor Rob Smith to help expand its news operation.

His first day is June 25, and he will be based in Seattle.

Smith will be launching a national retail desk and leading CoStar’s retail coverage, while also helping the team establish a news organization.

“It’s a rare opportunity to work in a startup news environment with an international, publicly traded company committed to a topnotch news product,” wrote Smith on Facebook.

Smith left the Puget Sound Business Journal in 2016 for personal reasons. He spent 18 years at American City Business Journals, including 10 years as editor of the Portland Business Journal and two years as managing editor of the Puget Sound paper.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.