Two editors promoted at WSJ

Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson sent out the following staff announcement on Monday afternoon:

The reupholstering of the Troika has created an opportunity to promote two of our most distinguished journalists. Sam Enriquez is to become Senior Editor on Page One, which will be enhanced by his experience as National News Editor and his strong ties with the US bureaus (his guitar skills will also add melodically to a department currently unrepresented in the Journal’s grunge ensemble). Sam’s editing and commissioning efforts day-after-day have enabled us to transform the National pages, which have become an increasingly important part of the daily discourse in America and globally.

Prior to joining the Journal in December 2007, Sam worked for the Los Angeles Times for more than 20 years, serving as a reporter, assistant city editor, city editor and foreign correspondent in Mexico City. He began his career in journalism as a reporter for the Easy Reader Newspaper in Hermosa Beach, CA. Sam directed two Pulitzer Prize-winning efforts while at the Los Angeles Times. The first, in 1998, was for breaking news coverage of a 1997 bank robbery in North Hollywood.  The second was in 2004 for coverage of the 2003 California wildfires. A native of Los Angeles, Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

One of our most outstanding chiefs, Jennifer Forsyth, will become National News Editor.  As Dallas Bureau Chief, a role she has held since November 2009, Jennifer oversaw the Journal’s investigation of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, steering coverage recognized internationally as clearly the most comprehensive and politically influential. Previously, Jenn’s canorous commissioning echoed around the land as Law Bureau Chief – before that, she worked as an editor and reporter in the Real Estate bureau.

Prior to joining the Journal, Jenn was a member of the investigative team at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where she was named Texas Journalist of the Year in 2003 by the Houston Press Club. She also worked for newspapers in Shreveport, La., and Plattsburgh, N.Y. Jennifer received a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1993 and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. She studied in Germany on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1991 and has become America’s foremost pie psephologist.

Please join me in congratulating Jenn and Sam, and in wishing them the very best in their important new roles.