WSJ columnist leaving to join start-up personal finance site

Ron Lieber, a Wall Street Journal columnist who has been writing the popular Green Thumb column about savings and spending, is leaving the paper to run the editorial side of the paper’s joint venture that aims to have a new personal finance web site up and running by the end of the year.

In an e-mail to other Journal writers, Lieber, who will be managing editor, noted that he’s looking for writers for the new venture, which does not yet have a name.

Lieber wrote, “In the next couple of months, I’ll be hiring three or four people to help me get this thing off the ground.

“What sort of people? Ideally, they care passionately about personal finance and define that term very broadly, to include everything from student-loan debt to the reasons why money ruins so many romantic relationships. They don’t have to have covered the topic before, but they need to be interested enough to spend every day thinking about it.

“I’m also hoping to hire folks with serious Web chops — either those who have worked online or live a big chunk of their personal lives there and are aching to build their professional online skills too.

“Finally, we plan to be in this with our readers in a big way, answering email and questions and participating in the community elements of the site with real vigor. The right candidates for this job will be the sorts that already love participating in online forums and social networks or won’t have any hesitation about doing so as part of this job.”

The joint venture with IAC/InterActiveCorp. has former Journal Money & Investing section editor Dave Kansas as its CEO. Kansas is also president of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. E-mail Lieber at ron.lieber@iac.com.