Plain Dealer biz editor Brink is departing

Mary Lou Brink

Mary Lou Brink, the business editor at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, is leaving the paper on May 31.

She has been the business editor since 2014. Before that, she was interactive media and niche publications director for the Fort Wayne Newspapers in Fort Wayne, Ind. She was also the paper’s metro editor.

Before that, Brink was news editor of the Midland Daily News in Michigan.

Brink’s position was eliminated as a direct result of the final four reporters at the Plain Dealer moving over to Cleveland.com. None of the news stories published about the gutting of the Plain Dealer newsroom mentioned her position because she wasn’t considered upper-management and wasn’t part of the union agreement.

In April, the Plain Dealer laid off four business reporters. Real estate reporter Michelle Jarboe was then laid off and hired by Crain’s Cleveland Business.

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.