Rockford business editor leaving paper

Jack Burke, the business editor at the Rockford Register Star in Illinois, is leaving the paper at the end of the week.

Burke will be an editor at High Velocity Communications in Waukesha, Wis. HVC is an independent publisher that specializes in custom publications from publication creation, layout and design, field research, editorial planning and editing and other things.

Burke was business editor for just more than a year, being named to the post in August 2006. Before that, he was assistant metro editor at the Register Star for three years.

“My replacement is Deborah Austin, who has worked as a business reporter at the Register Star since mid-October, but she has lived and worked in Rockford for 11 years,” said Burke to Talking Biz News.

Austin, 53, was a business reporter for eight years at the News-Press, a daily newspaper in Fort Myers, Fla. After moving to Rockford, she worked for several years as a freelance correspondent for IndustryWeek, a national publication for manufacturing executives. She also wrote for national business-to-business marketing publications.