Finance editor leaves BusinessWeek

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Adrienne Carter, an editor in the finance department of BusinessWeek, left the magazine Friday to go work for Wall Street.

She’s the first major staff person to leave since BusinessWeek was acquired by Bloomberg in December.

Carter will be the editor of a new online investment forum at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney aimed at their financial advisers. The site’s content will cover finance, personal finance and economics. Ironically, she will still be working in the McGraw-Hill building — where BusinessWeek has its offices until it moves to Bloomberg’s building — in midtown Manhattan.

“I think it’s safe to say the financial crisis is over,” she said in a note to her co-workers on Friday afternoon. “I moved back to New York in early 2007 just three days after HSBC announced ‘subprime’ problems. Back then we still had to use quotes around the word and define it. Now I’m moving on to my next challenge the same week the Fed announces a key rate hike and I get leverage in a story without explanation. As an economic indicator, I’m neither lagging nor leading. I just am.

“My five years at BusinessWeek have been an education, not only in esoteric financial products but also in personality management. It will serve me well as I transition from covering Wall Street to working for it. I’m not sure how I will adjust to a week that doesn’t end on a Wednesday or a corporate culture where mocking the training videos is not okay. Needless to say, I will miss it here. I’m proud of what we’ve produced over the years — and was lucky enough to have worked with such a talented group of writers, editors, designers, and photographers along the way. Thanks for putting up with me.”

Carter was the associate editor of the finance department for BusinessWeek, overseeing all financial coverage for the magazine. Prior to this position, she was finance department editor and a correspondent in BusinessWeek’s Chicago bureau covering the food and finance industry across the Midwest.

Prior to joining BusinessWeek, Carter worked at Money magazine, where she covered the mutual fund industry and oversaw Money’s 100 Top-Ranking Mutual Funds list. A graduate of Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Carter was awarded the TJFR 30 Under 30 Journalists of Distinction Award for three consecutive years since 2002.