Sacramento Bee names new biz editor

Wayne Davis, who has been deputy business editor at the Sacramento Bee, has been promoted to the business editor position.

Davis replaces Cathie Anderson, who is becoming the paper’s features editor after five years of running the business desk. The announcement was made at a staff meeting last week.

Davis has been the No. 2 person on the business desk for the past two and a half years. Before that, he ran a suburban bureau for the Bee in Elk Grove, Calif., for about three and a half years. He’s a graduate of the University of Missouri.

“I’ve spent a lot of my time here working in the features department, and I’ve also worked at papers in Louisiana, Washington state, Michigan and Maryland,” says Davis.

Managing editor Joyce Terhaar said, “Wayne has a broad background in the newsroom, first working for 15 years in features, including as copy desk chief and deputy features editor. He also ran the Elk Grove Bureau for Metro for 3 1/2 years, putting out a zoned section as well as contributing to the rest of the paper. While in that position he also led The Bee’s education coverage for the main paper and all the zoned editions.

“But as much as Wayne enjoyed working with education coverage, he also has long held a personal interest in Business and finance issues. When he moved into Business he led The Bee’s coverage of the subprime mortgage collapse, the housing collapse and the resulting economic downturn. We look forward to his continued leadership in his new role.”

It’s believed that the Bee will soon cut its standalone business section. Davis said any comment about that would have to come from executive editor Melanie Sill.