Interim removed from Virginian-Pilot biz editor's title

Chris Dinsmore, who became the interim business editor of the Virginian-Pilot last month when business editor Bill Choyke was named head of the paper’s community news operations, has now been named full-time business editor.

Dinsmore has been a part of the business news team from 15 years, joining The Pilot in 1993 as the retail reporter. Two years later, he took on the port/railroad/shipyard beat, covering, among other stories, Norfolk Southern’s takeover of Conrail and the strike at what was then Newport News Shipbuilding.

He later covered real estate and economic development in the boom years of the early 2000s, getting out just in time before the market collapsed to become assistant business editor in 2005.

“Right now I’m just getting my feet under me,” Dinsmore tells Talking Biz News. “I suspect my challenge will be managing the change coming from a new owner (as you know the Pilot is for sale) or a result of the ongoing downturn in newspaper revenue (not that I’m saying anything about the Pilot).

“I have some ideas, but they can wait until the landscape settles,” he adds. “Bill Choyke did a fine job, and I’m not planning to upset too much.”

Choyke, a member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, now oversees six local publications. He says one of his goals is to increase business coverage in them.