WSJ makes changes to Middle East coverage

Peter Wonacott, the Middle East and North Africa bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:

Colleagues:

We have some important new additions to the Middle East and North Africa bureau to help deepen our coverage of a complex region.

Mike Amon will become the bureau’s deputy chief based in Dubai. Mike has been the Journal’s energy editor for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the past three years out of London. He has led coverage of changes rippling through the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia’s plans to float Aramco and the end of nuclear sanctions on Iran. Mike joined the Journal in 2011 in Greater New York where he was deputy bureau chief. He has also worked at the Washington Post and Newsday. He is a graduate of New York University and a native of Yankton, South Dakota. Mike, who will be reporting as well as editing, is expected to begin his new job soon.

Jared Malsin is our new North Africa correspondent in Cairo who will also be keeping an eye on the wider Middle East. Jared comes to us from Time Magazine, where he was the Middle East bureau chief from Cairo and Istanbul. In that position, he covered everything from the Mosul offensive in Iraq to the Turkish coup attempt and the war in Syria. When not tracking conflict in Middle East, Jared follows American football and reads the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. He is a graduate from Yale University, an MA degree holder in journalism and Near Eastern Studies from New York University and a perpetual student of Arabic.

Sune Engel Rasmussen will be covering the region’s hotspots from Beirut. He was most recently The Guardian’s correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sune has also written for Harpers and GQ and was the Economist’s correspondent in Afghanistan, where he tooled around Kabul — like Steve McQueen — on a motorcycle and a leather jacket. In addition to his native Danish, Sune speaks fluent Spanish, Portuguese and passable Persian, which he polished during the two years he lived in Iran. He did his undergraduate degree at Copenhagen University and earned his MA from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Please join me in wishing all three the best in their challenging new jobs.

Thanks,
Peter