New investigative editor at BusinessWeek

There’s a new job at BusinessWeek, the weekly publication produced by McGraw-Hill. Paul Barrett from the Wall Street Journal has been made assistant managing editor of investigative projects. Previously, investigative stories were handled by a specific department editor and then by higher-ups at the magazine like assistant managing editors.

Earlier this year, long-time editor Steve Shepard stepped down from BusinessWeek to become the new dean of the journalism school at CUNY. He was replaced by another Wall Street Journal editor.

I worked at BusinessWeek for two years, and although Shepard liked to promote that the magazine had done a lot of investigative business journalism pieces, there were complaints by correspondents in the bureau and some of the writers in New York that the magazine could — and should — do more.

This Wall Street Journal-ization of the magazine is likely to continue, and I think that it will make the content of the magazine more investigatory.