NYT says goodbye to O'Brien

Here is New York Times business editor Larry Ingrassia‘s note to the staff about the departure of Sunday business editor Timothy O’Brien:

I am sad to announce that Tim O’Brien is leaving The Times, where he has done a terrific job, most recently as Sunday Business editor and before that as a reporter, to become national editor at the Huffington Post.

Everyone knows Tim’s passion for great journalism, and his dedication. Under his direction, Sunday Business reached new heights. Week in and week out, it featured some of the best story-telling in business journalism today, with a wonderfully wide range of narratives — from investigative looks at Wall Street to delightful profiles of executives and companies to important trend pieces about the changing nature of the world of business. He played a major role in helping to oversee our incisive series, The Reckoning, about the origins of the financial crisis, which was a major component of The Times’s work that was a finalist in the Pulitzer Prize public service category in 2009.

The last time Tim almost left — to take a job as a writer at Portfolio magazine — Bill Keller and I persuaded him to change his mind at the last minute and stay. I’m hoping to do that again, and won’t give up until he is really out the door. Fingers crossed. (He says that will be Dec. 23.)

Tim, we will miss you.