Puget Sound Biz Journal editor named publisher

Emory Thomas Jr., who has been editor of the Puget Sound Business Journal since June 2004, was named publisher of the weekly business newspaper on Friday. The current publisher, Mike Flynn, is retiring.

Thomas has had a distinguished career in business journalism. He worked for the Atlanta Business Chronicle and for the Wall Street Journal in Atlanta, as well as MSNBC. He was formerly vice president-product management for Business.com, a leading business information site. In 1992 and 1993, he won Gerald Loeb awards for his investigative reporting. Under his editorial leadership, the Business Journal has won numerous awards and was named one of the nation’s top business weeklies in 2005 by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

An editor to replace Thomas has not yet been named, but Thomas said in a news release that he expects to do so in the coming weeks.

Flynn had a 20-year career with United Press International, first as a reporter and bureau manager for news, and later in charge of sales and marketing for the western region. He joined what was then the Seattle Business Journal as editor in 1982, changed the name, and presided over nearly a quarter century of dramatic growth and change for the newspaper.

I had an opportunity to look at virtually all of the American City Business Journal publications last summer, and the Puget Sound paper was one of the best, if not the best, among them. It was well-written and well-designed, and it was writing unique stories.

Read the release here.