Tampa Bay Business Journal loses two reporters

Two reporters, including one longtime American City Business Journals staffer, left the Tampa Bay Business Journal on Friday.

Margie Manning, who was the finance editor for the Business Journal, has been hired as the finance editor at a digital startup, the St. Petersburg Catalyst. She starts on Monday.

The Catalyst launched in March, and currently has a small staff led by publisher Joe Hamilton.

“He’s told me to go out and find great business news stories and write them, and I couldn’t be more excited about telling those stories and helping create a voice for this new publication,” said Manning.

Manning had been at ACBJ for 23 years — 14 years at the Tampa Bay paper and nine years at the St. Louis Business Journal.

Janelle Irwin is returning to Florida Politics, the blog run by Peter Schorsch.

She had covered transit and government, including Transportation Network Companies, public transportation, government funding initiatives, legislation, local ordinances and federal regulations that affect business and business implications of political candidates and priorities for the Business Journal.

She had been at the Business Journal for more than two years.

Her work has been featured in the New York Daily News, Free Speech Radio News and Florida Public Radio and on WUSF’s Florida Matters, among others. Irwin provided commentary for radio stations across the nation for her coverage of the 2012 Republican National Convention.