Reporters take new helms at the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal welcomed four reporters — some new, some already on staff — to various positions throughout the organization.

Jaewon Kang joins the publication’s Chicago bureau to take on the food retail beat. Previously, Kang consumer deals for WSJ Pro’s private equity team in New York, delivering scoops on SunnyD, Jenny Craig, Jack’s Family Restaurants, Drunk Elephant, Crunch Fitness and more.

Her recent enterprise stories examine how airports are becoming more relevant to the luxury shopping sector and also how Planet Fitness emerged as one of the fastest-growing gym chains in the country. Before joining the Journal, Kang covered the telecom industry at The Deal. She graduated from New York University.

Nora Naughton joined the WSJ’s autos team in Detroit, covering Fiat Chrysler, the UAW and automotive retailing. Naughton was previously at the Detroit News, where she delivered scoops on Fiat Chrysler’s new Jeep factory in Detroit and salaried job cuts at GM.

Naughton’s recent enterprise work looked at the impact of GM’s U.S. plant closures on workers and the role the shutdowns would play in union talks this year. She previously was a real estate and government reporter at the Stamford Advocate in Connecticut and an intern at Automotive News. Naughton graduated with a degree in journalism from Eastern Michigan University.

Katherine Sayre is the publication’s new gambling reporter in Los Angeles. Sayre was most recently an investigative reporter for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where her work included an award-winning series that exposed failures in Louisiana’s mental health care system. Other projects examined dangerous conditions inside the city’s juvenile justice center and questionable public spending by a local sheriff’s office.

Sayre previously covered real estate and other business news and a legal battle over ownership of the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans teams. She has also worked at the Press-Register in Mobile, Ala. and did internships at several Texas publications. Sayre graduated the University of Texas in Austin with a Bachelor of Journalism.

Bowdeya Tweh is joining the San Francisco technology bureau as its New York-based news editor, handling news, features, newsletters, live blogs and more. Tweh served as the Journal’s Spot News Editor, a role in which he oversees reporters covering breaking business and finance news.

Before joining the Journal in 2017, Bow was the business editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer, where he also earned an M.B.A. from Miami University. He has also worked as a business reporter at the Times of Northwest Indiana and interned at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Detroit Free Press, Crain’s Detroit Business and Automotive News.