New biz editor wants to focus on local coverage

Larry Avila

Larry Avila, the new business editor of the Times of Northwest Indiana, wants its coverage to focus on local businesses, writes Giles Bruce of the paper.

Bruce writes, “Avila is the Times’ new business editor, having started June 19. He replaces Keith Benman, who took a job as a TV news reporter in upstate New York.

“In his new role, Avila will oversee a staff of three reporters who write for The Times’ award-winning business section (which appears in the paper every day but Saturday and Monday), as well as IN Business magazine.

“‘Keith Benman’s departure left big shoes to fill, and we conducted a search for a top business editor. We’re pleased that Larry Avila, from our sister paper in Madison, Wisconsin, joined our staff,’ said Bob Heisse, editor of The Times. ‘Larry has a strong business editing and reporting background and has already moved to the Region. We look forward to the business community getting to know him.'”

Read more here.

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.