WSJ reporter Leubsdorf leaving paper, returning to school

Ben Leubsdorf

Wall Street Journal economics reporter Ben Leubsdorf is leaving the paper and returning to graduate school.

Leubsdorf, whose last day is Tuesday, is becoming a master’s student this fall at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies.

“It’s been an honor and a pleasure to work with such great journalists these past four and a half years,” he wrote on Twitter.

Leubsdorf has been at the paper since January 2014 as a reporter in the Washington bureau. He writes about U.S. economic indicators and broader trends in the economy. He also oversees the Journal’s monthly survey of economic forecasters, and helps coordinate coverage of U.S. economic indicators.

He earlier covered the Federal Reserve, including the central bank’s much-anticipated first interest-rate increase following the 2007-2009 crisis.

Leubsdorf previously worked as a reporter at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in international relations.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.