San Diego Business Journal editor Jensen resigns

Nels Jensen has resigned from the San Diego Business Journal after four and a half years years as editor in chief.

Jensen said he has not sorted out what is next for him. Managing editor Vik Jolly has been named interim editor.

He’s the third editor of a California Business Journals paper to depart in the past two months. Earlier, the editors of the Los Angeles Business Journal and Orange County Business Journal left.

Jensen cited among his top accomplishments as launching a weekly Startup Page and the introduction of the annual product the SD 500, The Book Of Influential Business Leaders.

“The Startup Page has greatly enhanced our coverage of new companies but also led to more stories about tech companies, venture capital and private equity, and the mergers and acquisition sector,” he said.

“Business journals traditionally have taken an approach of waiting until a company achieves a certain scale of growth or success before writing about them; we’ve tried to let readers know more about this budding tech ecosystem as it evolves around them.

“When we first discussed adding The SD 500 to our mix, I wasn’t so sure it would work,” he added. “Five hundred seemed like too big of a number of business leaders to profile at one time, more of a phonebook approach than highlighting excellence. But I was a quick convert as I realized how many amazing B2B leaders there are in the community. It’s subjective selection process for sure, and a gargantuan task to complete, but after publishing three SD 500s, I see it as a true bookend people product to our annual Book of Lists, which remains the most robust local company database in the market.”

Jensen previously was editor and vice president of news and content at The Press-Enterprise daily newspaper company in Riverside, California.