New editor at Biz Journal

Kurt Batdorf is the new editor of the Snohomish County Business Journal in Washington, replacing John Wolcott, who is retiring.

Wolcott writes, “Batdorf is an experienced journalist and editor with extensive local newspaper background that will serve him well in providing the Snohomish County Business Journal’s business coverage.

“He graduated in 1985 from The Evergreen State College in Olympia with a B. A. degree. During his last two quarters, he helped his mother and stepfather start the Skagit River Post, a weekly newspaper based in Burlington. Later, when his parents acquired the Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times and its print shop, Batdorf helped incorporate the two newspapers’ staffs and operations. From 1988 to 1991, he was editor of the Monroe Monitor, then took on the editor’s job at the North Snohomish Weekly in Arlington from 1991 to 1995.

“‘I covered a lot of night meetings and community news in those first 10 years,’ he said. ‘It taught me that community news is really the most important news.’

“In early 1995, Batdorf took a job on the new universal copy desk of Sound Publishing Co.’s office in Oak Harbor, where two copy editors were responsible for designing all news and feature pages for the twice-weekly Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record and the weekly Islands Sounder that serves the San Juan Islands.”

Read more here.