San Fran Chronicle hires Owen Thomas as biz editor

Owen Thomas

Owen Thomas has been hired by the San Francisco Chronicle to be its business editor.

David Baker of the Chronicle writes, “Thomas has a 20-year history in online journalism, having moved to San Francisco in 1995 to work on the website of Mother Jones magazine. Other posts have included positions at Time Inc., NBC Bay Area, VentureBeat, the Daily Dot, Business Insider and, most recently, tech news site ReadWrite.

“‘Owen’s arrival at The Chronicle will dramatically boost our ongoing effort to unapologetically and relentlessly cover the Bay Area’s changing economy — one that has significant impact in both the region and around the globe,’ said Chronicle Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper. ‘Owen is a smart, dogged leader who will help us continue to tell the story about how our provocative and entrepreneurial region is changing the world.’

“Thomas transformed the now-defunct Valleywag from a single-writer blog into a daily must-read for the tech industry. At Business Insider, he broke the news of Microsoft’s $1.2 billion purchase of Yammer.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.