Unger to be next columnist for Atlanta business section

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Henry Unger, a longtime business reporter and assistant business editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will become the paper’s business columnist after the departure of current columnist Tom Oliver, who has taken a buyout offer.

Unger will be the columnist and blogger for the business section for the Web site, but says that some details are still to be worked out. It’s part of a broader effort by the paper to establish brand personalities for each section, from feature to metro to sports.

Unger had been business and sports enterprise editor. Before that, he had been an assistant business editor, deputy business editor and a business reporter, covering everything from the business of sports to Coca-Cola and investigations. He has been at the paper for 19 years.

Before that, Unger worked at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, which closed in November 1989. He also worked in Los Angeles at City News Service and the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and in California at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Orange County Register. He has a degree in economics from Queens College.

Oliver is leaving after being the columnist for less than a year. He replaced Maria Saporta, who also took the paper’s buyout offer.

DISCLOSURE: I worked with Unger on the Atlanta business desk from 1994 to 1997, including reporting together for several projects, and consider him a friend.