Public editor to become new business editor in Atlanta

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Matt Kempner, the public editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will become the paper’s new business editor, according to an internal organizational chart obtained by Talking Biz News.

Kempner will replace Andre Jackson, who is becoming the paper’s editorial editor. Jackson also oversee coverage of the federal and state news teams, but Kempner will just oversee a team of 12 business reporters.

The Atlanta paper moved its business news during the week inside its A section earlier this year

Kempner is a former business reporter at the paper, having covered the media beat and other topics such as growth and water. He also worked out of the paper’s Gwinnett County bureau at one point, and he previously worked at the Gwinnett Daily News, the former New York Times Co. paper that the Journal-Constitution purchased in the 1990s and closed.

Kempner is a University of Georgia graduate. He is a 2005 Society of American Business Editors and Writers Best in Business Award winner in the Enterprise category for a story he did with colleague Maria Saporta on Home Depot’s corporate giving. In 2007, he was part of a team that won a Best in Business Award in the breaking news category for the coverage of the departure of Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli.

My favorite Kempner story, however, is when he donned the brown of a UPS driver and drove around one day on a truck, delivering packages during Christmas. The paper posted a short video about it. Here is his story.

Disclosure: Kempner and I worked on the business desk together from 1994 to 1997, and we remain good friends.