WSJ names new retail reporter

Wall Street Journal corporate bureau chief Andrew Dowell sent out the following staff promotion on Tuesday morning:

I’m pleased to announce that Suzanne Kapner has joined the Corporate Bureau to cover retail. She takes over our coverage of department stores like Macy’s and Penney, specialty retailers like Gap and J Crew, and apparel companies like Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors. She’ll also weigh in on broader trends affecting the industry and consumers.

The Journal has tried to hire Suzanne to cover retail before – back in 2007, when she had just joined Fortune magazine. She wrote a number of high-profile articles at Fortune, including an in-depth cover story about the changing of the guard at Wal-Mart. Prior to that, Suzanne covered retail at the New York Post, breaking merger news about Barney’s and Neiman Marcus among other scoops. We’re glad this time around she’ll be bringing those talents to bear for us.

Suzanne joins us from Money & Investing, where she covered Citigroup and chronicled ongoing problems at the nation’s third largest bank including the ouster of CEO Vikram Pandit, its failure to pass a Fed stress test and a shareholder backlash over executive pay.

Please join me in welcoming Suzanne to her new beat.