Once decimated, Times-Picayune biz desk re-emerges

In the summer of 2012, The Times-Picayune, the daily newspaper in New Orleans owned by the Newhouse family, revamped its news operation and laid off its business editor, who later found work in Phoenix, and one of its business reporters.

Another business reporter soon left for Tennessee, leaving just one business reporter to cover the entire city. Many in the business journalism world believed that the Times-Picayune was giving up on business news coverage and focusing elsewhere.

In recent months, however, the Times-Picayune has been slowly rebuilding its business desk, a sign that business news is once again of interest to the people in New Orleans running its daily newspaper.

In June 2013, Katherine Sayre, a news reporter covering St. Tammany Parish, was named a business reporter covering New Orleans metro area real estate and retail news for The Times-Picayune.

Then the paper appointed Mark Waller, who had been with it for 15 years, in November 2012 to cover the entrepreneurship scene, tourism and other business topics.

Now comes news of two more business reporter hires.

One is Jed Lipinski, formerly of The New York Times’ metro desk’s freelance rotation, who is covering the Port of New Orleans and shipbuilders. He grew up in Massachusetts and majored in biology and English at Bates College, before receiving his MFA in creative writing from New York University.

The other is Jennifer Larino, a former reporter and managing editor at New Orleans City Business. She is now covering the energy and banking/finance industries as well as general business news in the greater New Orleans area for the Times-Picayune.