New editors named at WSJ

Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli sent out the following e-mail message Friday afternoon:

“I’m pleased to announce the elevation of two editors to new jobs that will strengthen and focus our coverage in two areas of central importance to readers, real estate and economics.

“Connie Mitchell Ford, New York-based economics editor, will become the paper’s real-estate and property bureau chief. While Connie already has had considerable responsibility for real-estate coverage from New York, she now will manage a national team of reporters dedicated to the subject. All of our reporting on commercial real estate and housing, as well as the financial and personal-finance aspects of the property business, will fall into Connie’s domain. That means she will guide the coverage that fills our Property Report pages, as well as the mortgage and real-estate coverage for Personal Journal. She also will oversee enhanced real-estate coverage at WSJ.com, working closely with and his colleagues.

“In addition to the property reporters based in New York, Connie will supervise the Journal’s real-estate reporters in Pittsburgh, Houston and Los Angeles, and contributors in Chicago and Europe.

“David Wessel, deputy Washington bureau chief, also will take on a new role, becoming the Journal’s global economics editor. In addition to his current responsibilities overseeing coverage of the Fed, he will be responsible for overseeing our daily coverage of the macro economy, global trade and economic trends, the European Central Bank, the IMF and the World Bank and the Outlook column. He also will continue write his widely read weekly column, Capital.

“David has worked closely with Fed reporter Greg Ip to create the terrific new ‘Real Time Economics’ section of WSJ.com. Working with Alan’s team, they will explore other ways to deliver our authoritative and distinctive economics coverage online.

“In addition to the economy reporters based in Washington, David’s team will include reporters in New York, Europe and Asia.

“Connie has been the Journal’s New York-based economics editor since 1994 and has overseen the property group since 2005. Before that, she was a reporter covering banking, the bond market, small business, corporate finance and the business of Wall Street. Before joining the Journal, Connie worked as an economist. She holds a B.S. in journalism from the University of Maryland at College Park and an M.A. in economics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

“David has been a deputy Washington bureau chief since 2002. Before that, he was our Berlin bureau chief and a correspondent in Washington and Boston. Before joining the Journal in 1984, he worked for the Boston Globe, the Hartford Courant and the Middletown, Conn., Press. He has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, one for a Boston Globe series on the persistence of racism in Boston, and the other in 2002 for our series on corporate wrong-doing. He is a graduate of Haverford College and was a 1981 Knight Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University.

“These assignments will take effect in September, and both David and Connie will report to Deputy Managing Editor Bill Grueskin. Please join me in congratulating Connie and David on their new assignments.”