WSJ names King global economics editor

Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker sent out the following staff promotion on Tuesday:

I’m delighted to announce that Neil King has been named our new Global Economics Editor and a deputy Washington bureau chief, an important first step in a significant expansion of our already peerless economics coverage.

Economics is front and center of The Wall Street Journal’s broad and growing ambit and Neil is perfectly equipped to lead our coverage.  In 21 years at the Journal, he has covered with depth and distinction a wide array of stories, from the opening up of Eastern Europe, the aftermath of the Yugoslav war, EU expansion and the birth of the euro, to international trade, OPEC and oil, the 2009 U.S. auto bailout and most recently, U.S. politics. Time and again, he has shown the ability to explain complicated matters of policy, but also to connect them to events and people far outside the bubbles that surround the world’s capitals.

Both skills will be crucial for Neil as we work to further the reach and impact of our coverage. In this new role, Neil will have oversight of all economic coverage areas, from economic policy to U.S. economics reporting, and the new central banks vertical run by Nell Henderson, allowing us to better coordinate the many strands of our reporting. In the coming weeks, we expect to appoint several new reporters and editors to round out the team and to share plans to elevate the already excellent Real Time Economics into a more vital, must-read site for all economic news, analysis and data. An enhanced digital presence for economics will be one of the pillars of my push to deepen our digital presence this year.

A fourth-generation Coloradan, Neil earned a philosophy degree from Columbia University and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. His resume includes stints as a coin and precious-metals dealer, a waiter, a Wyoming ranch hand, a runner on the now-defunct Pacific Stock Exchange, an Alaskan fish-boat cleaner, a grape harvester at Chateau D’Yquem, an Oakland private investigator and a New York City cab driver. His first desk in journalism—in a strip mall at the rough and tumble New Port Richey bureau of the Tampa Tribune—was approximately six feet from that of another cub reporter, Rebecca Blumenstein.

Neil will report to Jerry Seib, and work closely with U.S. editor Jennifer Forsyth.  In this newly created role, he will also work alongside fellow deputy bureau chief in Washington, the inestimable Matthew Rose.

This change also will allow us to realign our editing structure to prepare for the important coming launch of an expanded Washington online product. Susan Benkelman, who recently joined us from her previous position as Editorial Director of CQ-Roll Call, will take over management of coverage of Congress and a group of associated policy beats. That will free political editor Aaron Zitner to focus on our expanding national political coverage and the White House as we move into the 2014 and 2016 election cycles.

Tim Aeppel, who has done a splendid job shepherding the New York economics group, will take on a new assignment that we will announce shortly.

Please join me in congratulating Neil in this important new role.