New beats for Gelles, Chen on NYT’s biz desk

New York Times business editor Dean Murphy sent out the following announcement to the staff:

We are pleased to announce that David Gelles and Brian Chen are taking on new roles for BizDay.

David will write regularly for Sunday Business about finance and other Wall Street and business subjects, drawing upon his experience covering M&A, media, marketing and tech. Since joining The Times two years ago, David has untangled complex business subjects for our readers, both on deadline and in long-form features, demonstrating over and over again that financial journalism can be engaging and compelling.

As part of his new assignment, David will also write a feature for Sunday Business on progressive business practices, both those that succeed and those that don’t. His recent book, “Mindful Work,” made it clear that David has a deep understanding of outside-the-box thinking aimed at making business – and the act of doing business – rewarding and enriching beyond the bottom line. The monthly “Revalued” feature will examine corporate experiments in social responsibility, personal wellness, environmental stewardship, gender and race equality, impact investing, and more.

While reporting to Sunday Business, David will also remain part of the daily rhythm, jumping into breaking news stories as needed, and directing shorter-term features to the weekday report.

Brian will move to the consumer technology beat, which he will push in new directions to include reader-friendly interactive features, data-driven reporting and stories focused on solving tech-related problems. The main vehicle for his reporting will be a weekly feature to be named “Tech Fix,” and he will also write news stories and pursue broader enterprise.

Brian comes to the job with experience, curiosity, tremendous energy and a list of innovative ideas about how to distinguish our consumer tech report. Though he has long been associated with his outstanding coverage of Apple, Brian’s new role builds upon his early career in personal tech. He was a founder of Wirecutter, the popular review site, and he also wrote for Wired.

As our lead consumer technology writer, Brian will work closely with Farhad Manjoo, Cat Stuart, Kit Eaton, J.D. Biersdorfer and others in building a digital and print report second to none.