Detroit Free Press names new biz editor

The following internal announcement was distributed to the Detroit Free Press staff:

We’re pleased to announce that Christopher Kirkpatrick is our new business editor. He’ll begin transitioning this week and will start his new role next Monday.

Since arriving here last April, Christopher has done an excellent job of overseeing education and health coverage. He had only worked here a short time before editing colleagues were praising his collegial, cool and professional manner as he worked across departments to usher strong coverage into the paper and onto freep.com.

Christopher had an award-winning reporting career before joining the Free Press and has extensive experience in coverage of economic development and business issues.

Christopher grew up in the Detroit area and began his journalism career in 1994 at The Herald Sun in Durham, N.C., where he covered a variety of beats, including legislative issues, and won state and national awards for his work. He moved to the Toledo Blade in 2004 and worked as an economic development and projects reporter. He was a lead writer on a year-long investigative project that uncovered widespread corruption in Ohio state government. The reporting effort was honored as a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in public service and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize in Investigative Reporting from Harvard. The coverage won a Gerald Loeb Award for best business writing, as well as National Headliner Awards in investigative reporting and the grand prize category.

Christopher left Toledo for The Charlotte Observer in 2006. He worked in Business there and covered energy and economic development issues. Among his efforts, he helped cover a US Airways takeover bid that won a SABEW (Society of American Business Editors and Writers) award for breaking news coverage in 2007. Christopher returned to Toledo for about a year as a reporter and occasional editor before joining the Free Press.

We look forward to working with Christopher as he leads our very talented Business team. Please join us in congratulating him on his promotion.