WaPo shuffles biz desk editors, names white collar crime reporter

We have several organizational changes to announce on the Financial desk.

Michelle Williams, who has been our digital editor, will become an assignment desk editor and will work closely with David Cho to run our technology coverage. Michelle’s news judgment and mastery of the tools of digital journalism will help us find the smartest stories and the broadest audience, as she has already demonstrated in her running of the Get There personal finance vertical.

Renae Merle, who has been an integral part of our editing desk since 2012, is moving back to reporting to cover the world of finance and white collar crime out of New York. She has been the backbone of our desk through many hectic times, but writing about finance in New York has been a goal since getting her MBA at Columbia. We’re happy that the reorganization has made that possible.

Dan Beyers, a great all-around editor who so ably ran Capital Business, and Kelly Johnson, who runs Sunday Business and is a talented editor of enterprise stories, will be responsible for our general business report. Dan and Kelly will work together to beef up our national and local business coverage, and will back each other up on the daily and Sunday pages.

And, of course, Simone Sebastian is joining policy editor Zach Goldfarb on the policy/economy team to round out our very strong slate of editors.

Finally, we’re happy to announce that Matt McFarland has joined our team, and his On Innovations blog will operate in coordination with The Switch and our other tech coverage. Please join us in welcoming Matt.