WSJ names new assistant ME

Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson sent out the following staff promotion on Tuesday:

In the constant quest to elevate our standards and improve the quality of our journalism, we are delighted to announce that Bob Rose will be joining the leadership team in the Standards and Ethics office as an Assistant Managing Editor. In this new role, Bob will partner with Elyse Tanouye and Karen Pensiero in shaping, communicating and upholding the virtues and values of the Journal and Newswires. He will work with you as a final reader/story vetter; serve as an instructor in training sessions at bureaus around the world; and deal promptly and thoughtfully with corrections and letters/emails from our readers.

A Rose by any other name, Bob brings supreme judgment and a strong editing and reporting experience to the position. He began his Journal career in 1985 as a reporter covering a range of beats including personal finance, futures, airlines, and manufacturing. Later as an editor, he worked as deputy chief of the Chicago bureau, as a news editor on the national desk, and as Atlanta bureau chief.

He was lured (or led astray) to the Philadelphia Inquirer for three years beginning in 2004 as the Assistant Managing Editor for business news, but wisely returned to Dow Jones in 2007 as Executive Editor of SmartMoney magazine. Since March 2011, Bob has run the Markets news desk, overseeing the daily editing and construction of the Money & Investing section in the paper and online. We are fortunate that the excellent and extremely able Tim Annett, currently deputy editor of the Markets Desk, has agreed to be Acting Chief of the desk, reporting to Matt Murray.

The demands on the Standards and Ethics office are changing dramatically as Journal and Newswires operations merge around the globe, and as WSJ.com expands its blogging, video and social media offerings, all of which must be characterized by quality and integrity. Bob will be a vital part of monitoring our journalism and of conveying the detail and import of our policies to ensure that the Journal and Newswires maintain the very highest standards in journalism.