WSJ names New York bureau chief, desk editor, deputy bureau chief

Wall Street Journal U.S. editor Jennifer Forsyth sent out the following promotions on Tuesday:

This week, The Wall Street Journal made some exciting promotions in our Greater New York section, designed to make our coverage more integrated with the rest of the Journal’s news gathering and to make us even more competitive in a demanding market. We are extremely fortunate to have these editors in these new roles.

Bob Rose becomes New York Bureau Chief, a new position. He will be responsible for helping to conceive, direct and drive our news and features for the entire print section and GNY’s coverage on WSJ.com. Bob brings a wealth of editing and managerial experience to the job. Before joining GNY, Bob was a member of The Journal’s Standards & Ethics team, which he joined last year after a stint as Markets Desk editor for the Money & Investing section. Before rejoining The Journal in 2011 he was executive editor at SmartMoney magazine for four years and business editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer for three years. He started his WSJ career as a reporter in New York and Chicago, and later served as deputy bureau chief in Chicago and bureau chief in Atlanta. He’s a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Most importantly, he’s from New Jersey.

John Seeley becomes New York Desk Editor, also a new position. In some ways, this formalizes the important role John was already performing for us, in charge of all quality control and production for the print section and GNY’s offerings to WSJ.com. However, John will be asked to take on an enhanced role, working closely with the USNEWS desk to give GNY’s work a greater presence on the homepage and in the U.S. news pages.  John was hired by The Wall Street Journal in December 2009 to launch and edit the Greater New York section, which took off in April 2010. He came to The Journal after six years at the New York Sun, where he last served as deputy managing editor. He has also worked at BusinessWeek and Advertising Age International in New York, where he has lived since 1998. Prior to that, he was editing and writing for a year in Kiev, Ukraine, and he started his career in Washington, where he was employed by Roll Call and States News Service, among others. He lives in Kew Gardens, Queens.

Bob and John will report to me.

Additionally, Michael Amon becomes Deputy New York Bureau Chief.  Mike joined us two years ago as a news editor in GNY and wowed us with his knowledge of the area, his indefatigable work ethic, his ability to coach reporters and his dedication to hard-hitting watchdog journalism. Mike’s exhaustive efforts are one reason why the Journal won the SPJ’s Sigma Delta Chi award for Deadline Reporting on Superstorm Sandy. Before coming to The Journal, Michael put in five years at Newsday, where he covered politics, poverty and a serial killer as a general assignment reporter on Long Island. The South Dakota native covered crime for the Washington Post for three years, and in 2005, his profiles of the Army Reserve soldiers accused of mistreating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib were included in that paper’s package that was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for National Reporting. In 2006, he founded Disgrace, a non-fiction humor magazine and website.