Longtime biz journalist Rothacker leaving Charlotte Observer

Rick Rothacker

Rick Rothacker, a longtime business journalist for The Charlotte Observer and Reuters, is leaving the paper for a job at Bank of America.

Rothacker is becoming internal communications manager at Bank of America Merchant Services, which is a joint venture of BofA and First Data. His last day at the Observer is June 15.

“I really enjoyed my time at the Observer, but I am excited about this new opportunity,” said Rothacker in an email.

Rothacker started his career with the Observer in 1998 in the Gastonia bureau, and moved to the business department to cover banking. In 2009, he won a Gerald Loeb Award in the beat reporting category for his coverage of Wachovia, the Charlotte-based bank that was sold to Wells Fargo.

In 2011, he departed to work locally for Reuters but returned to the Observer in 2013 as a business investigations reporter.

“Rick is among the very best public-records reporters I’ve worked with,” said Observer editor Sherry Chisenhall in a message to the staff. “We and our readers will miss the smart analysis he frequently delivered by mining records for compelling, deeper stories.”

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.