WSJ changes editing, management structure for US finance coverage

Wall Street Journal financial editor Charles Forelle sent out the following on Thursday:

Hi all,

We’re changing the editing and management structure of Finance in the U.S. These changes preserve the best of the Journal’s bureau model–expert editors managing the work and the development of skilled beat reporters–and give us topic-based editing that can respond flexibly to emerging news and themes.

Our U.S. reporters will be organized under five bureau chiefs in three broad groups: financial markets; Wall Street and the financial industry; and financial risk, enforcement and regulation. Heard on the Street remains a distinct unit under Spencer Jakab. Alex Frangos continues to run the London finance group and Serena Ng runs Hong Kong; both oversee the staff in their regions and the full gamut of finance topics there, and work closely with editors in New York.

Aaron Kuriloff and Lauren Pollock jointly lead our markets coverage, overseeing the daily action in financial markets; our longer-term exploratory and explanatory work; securities and assets of all stripes; and the nexus of markets and monetary policy. Markets reporters in the U.S. report to Aaron or Lauren.

Marie Beaudette and Dana Cimilluca jointly lead coverage of Wall Street’s institutions, people products and services. That encompasses banks and lenders; deals and dealmakers; wealth managers and money; fintechs and payments; private-equity firms, asset managers and hedge funds–and finance’s intersection with the economy. This group comprises the reporters from Marie’s Banking team and Dana’s Deals team as well as several reporters who had been on the Investing team.

Ken Brown expands his remit to take on climate finance, insurance, risk and regulation. His Financial Risk, Enforcement and Regulation bureau will grow (see job openings below). It will cover these topics closely and use its investigative skills to break news and develop projects. Ken and Eric Morath in D.C. will form a cross-coverage-area team responsible holistically for regulatory agencies and the effect of regulation on finance.

Nate Becker, Christina Rexrode and Jenna Telesca become finance news editors. Each will have responsibility for specific topics, akin to beats, that can change as new themes emerge. Nate will be on IPOs, SPACs and capital markets and will be the U.S. point person for China finance coverage; Christina will be on consumer banking and housing finance; and Jenna on retail investing and crypto. They’ll be the editing owners of those topics and will draw on relevant reporters across the various groups. Nate, Christina and Jenna, all of whom have been deputy bureau chiefs, will also continue to back up the bureau chiefs as needed and will be called into the fray when news demands.

We have big plans to grow our markets coverage. David Marino-Nachison is joining the Finance group as markets news editor. He will edit and publish markets copy and help organize and shepherd our coverage during the day. More growth is coming. Watch this space.

Aaron, Lauren, Marie, Dana and Ken will continue to report to me; Nate, Christina, Jenna and David will report to either Colin Barr or David Reilly, the deputy finance editors.

We’re actively hiring in all of our U.S. groups, as well as overseas. I encourage anyone interested to check out these job postings:

• Senior finance reporter, New York
• Markets reporter, New York
• Climate finance & regulation reporter, New York
• Financial crime & enforcement reporter, New York
• M&A reporter, New York
• Heard on the Street writer, New York
• Heard on the Street writer, Asia
• Audience editor, New York
• Deputy Europe finance editor, London
• Senior markets reporter, London
• Finance reporter, London
• China finance reporter, Hong Kong

I couldn’t be happier to work with this outstanding team of editors and with the best financial reporters in the business.

Best,

Charles