Dow Jones names new top editor for Americas

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson sent out the following announcement to the staff on Thursday afternoon:

I’m delighted to announce that Steve Wisnefski will become Senior Editor, Americas, for Dow Jones Newswires. He will take on many of the editorial oversight responsibilities now held by Gabriella Stern and Rick Stine, who have been admirable news navigators. As announced, Gabriella is moving to become managing editor of our clandestine Special Project. Rick becomes the senior editor responsible for innovation because, well, he is innovative and has created the first phase of our Special Project, about which no more can be said.

Steve will supervise the sterling Linda Fung, Managing Editor for North American equities; Bart Fraust, Managing Editor of the Americas Copy Desk; Charlie Roth, Assistant Managing Editor for Latin America; Rob Wells, Washington Bureau Chief; the yet-to-be-appointed managing editor for Americas resources and the bureau chief for Canada; and Management Assistant Lorane Reid. Steve will report to Neal Lipschutz, Newswires’ Managing Editor and Guardian Angel.

Rick, who has served as Senior Editor, Americas, since 2005, will continue to supervise Adam Smallman, Managing Editor for investment banking, whose team has had much success in creating an investment bank “vertical”, and Brian Cronk, Managing Editor for wealth management. He will continue to report to Neal.

Linda will get additional responsibilities, taking over supervision of Mark Stein, Assistant Managing Editor for U.S. corporate debt coverage, and the corporate debt and municipal bond reporters.

Steve is ideally suited for his new role. Since November 2009, he has served as Managing Editor of Americas energy and commodities coverage. For most of 2009, he was Deputy Managing Editor for Dow Jones News Service in New York, overseeing our US stock markets reporting and the Monitor and Rewrite desks. From 2005 to 2008, he was Chicago bureau chief, leading coverage of exchanges and transportation, among other industries. He joined Dow Jones in 1997 as a reporter in Sao Paulo and later became bureau chief for Brazil.

Rick, a 27-year veteran of Dow Jones, has served as Senior Editor, Americas, since 2005. He was Managing Editor for North American equities from 1999 to 2005. Through his long managerial career, Rick has thought creatively about the news and how we present it. He developed or advanced a number of enhancements to the wires, from columns and content sets to NewsPlus to our more recent hush-hush venture.

Linda has served as Managing Editor for North American equities since 2005. She has been the czarina of fixed-income and equities, a copy editor, chief of spot news, Chicago bureau chief, and assistant and deputy managing editor for North American equities. In other words, Linda knows virtually everything about virtually everything.

Please join me in wishing Steve, Rick and Linda much success in their new assignments.