Oregonian biz editor resigns for Linfield College job

Scott Bernard Nelson

Scott Bernard Nelson, who has been overseeing business news coverage at The Oregonian for the past five years, has resigned.

His last day will be Aug. 19.

Nelson has accepted a position as director of communications at Linfield College, where he and his wife graduated from in 1994. Nelson has been on its Business Advisory Council for seven years, working with the president and others on a variety of issues.

“As much as I’m tied to Linfield, though, this is a hard decision,” said Nelson in an email to Talking Biz News. “Major-metro journalism is fighting for its life, and I hate to be abandoning ship right in the middle of it. But this came along, and it was right for me and my family.”

Nelson served as deputy business editor, breaking news editor, online enterprise editor and Portland editor since joining The Oregonian in 2003. He previously worked on the Tampa Tribune business news desk for two years and at the Boston Globe for four years.

A Reedsport native, Nelson graduated cum laude from Linfield with a B.A. in mass communications and political science. He has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Maryland and a certificate in financial planning from the University of South Florida.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.