Something is fishy with Roanoke biz reporter reassignment

Dean Starkman of Columbia Journalism Review takes a closer look Tuesday with why the Roanoke Times moved health care industry reporter Jeff Sturgeon to another beat after a major health care provider in the area pulled its advertising from the paper.

Starkman says he didn’t get adequate answers from the paper’s managing editor or editor about the move.

Starkman writes, “In an interview with me, Stowe said he believed the issue had ‘been addressed’ by Tarrant in the original Journal story. He also repeated that the coverage of Carilion had not changed, even if the reporter had.

“‘I can tell you that we feel like we cover Carilion better any other news media organization,’ he said. ‘We have a track record.’

“As for Sturgeon, he said that ‘we restructure and change beats all the time,’ but declined to say whether Sturgeon’s reassignment was part of a normal beat change. ‘We don’t get into personnel decisions and why we change beats,’ he said.

“He said Sturgeon wasn’t ‘banned’ from covering Carilion and that, as he noted in his column, that Sturgeon did write a tough story about Carilion in May.”

Read more here.