WSJ economics reporter Aeppel says goodbye with a chart

Timothy Aeppel, who covers economics and manufacturing for The Wall Street Journal, is leaving the paper.

In an email to the staff, Aeppel provided the following chart, with a note that read, “This sums up what I’m thinking today. Best, Tim”:

In an email to Talking Biz News, Aeppel wrote:

A good friend in our graphics department once told me that a chart was far better than a story in getting an idea across. We argued over that quite a bit. But this morning, as I was trying to figure out how to sign off, this seemed like the logical way.

Aeppel has been the senior economics correspondent for the past 14 months.

A native of Loup City, Neb., Aeppel joined the Journal in 1989 to cover Germany—and, within weeks of his arrival, was witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall. He went on to chronicle the reunification of Germany and to become the Journal’s Europe-wide auto correspondent. After moving back to the U.S., he carved out a beat covering America’s factory floors. He is a graduate of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and of Principia College.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.