WSJ shuffles editors in Hong Kong/Asia

Wall Street Journal Asia editor Paul Beckett sent out the following announcement on Monday:

I’d like to share significant changes to the senior ranks of our editing operations in Hong Kong/Asia.

David Crawshaw, our esteemed captain of the real-time desk for almost two years, will be relocating to the New York office soon. I’d like to thank David, on behalf of our entire Asia team, for the stellar work he has done in making our real-time publishing operations so expert, comprehensive, smart and speedy.

Going forward, we are revamping the structure of the editing and publishing operations in Hong Kong to bring our news editing desks closer together and to accelerate our transformation:

– Troy McCullough, Editor for World News, is promoted to Asia News Editor. In this new role, Troy will supervise the World News desk in Hong Kong, the Asia Real-Time desk, and the publication of our new WSJ (One Journal) Asia print edition. Those departments will report to him. He will also serve as my deputy for news, responsible for ensuring that we are delivering on our mandate to be digital-first and mobile-first for a global audience. His new remit will involve improving our preparedness for each digital day, working with all bureaus and the topic desks in Hong Kong and with his counterparts in New York and London. He’ll help ensure that stories, videos and graphics are delivered when promised and help coordinate the planning and publishing of our longer-term enterprise efforts as well.

Troy has been in Hong Kong since 2012 as world news editor in Asia. He joined The Journal in 2007 in New York as an online editor and moved to the world desk in 2008 as the night editor. Both Osama bin Laden and Kim Jong Il died on his watch. Troy came to The Journal from The Baltimore Sun, where he worked as an editor on The Sun’s foreign desk during the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He began his journalism career at The Ames, Iowa, Tribune. Troy is a 1996 graduate of Iowa State University. He and his wife, Alison, spend most of their “free” time chasing an energetic one-year-old son, Theo, around Hong Kong’s many parks, playgrounds and beaches.

– Tom Derpinghaus, Deputy Asia Real-Time Desk Editor, is promoted to Asia Real-Time Desk Editor, responsible for ensuring the smooth, timely and eye-grabbing publication of our daily stories for WSJ, WSJ Pro and Dow Jones Newswires. He will work with Troy and me on ways in which we can improve our advance-warning and preparedness for the digital day. And he will coordinate closely with video, visual and social/audience development to make sure we are giving our readers and subscribers the very best package of stories on core topics that we can. He will report to Troy.

Over the course of six-plus years in Asia, Tom has worked for web, wires and print and has a broad knowledge about how to serve news consumers of all stripes. Before that, he worked for Newswires at Harborside in the corporate spot news department. He became deputy on the desk in the spring of 2014. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a horse-racing enthusiast, Tom and Rosi have a 13-month-old son named Yago. Tom hopes to pass his enthusiasm for soul, country and bluegrass music to his son.

– Anne Pallivathuckal, an editor on the Real-Time Desk, is promoted to Deputy Asia Real-Time Desk Editor. She will report to Tom and help with the development and organization of the desk to ensure that we are delivering across all platforms and meeting our digital- and mobile-first mandate.

Anne has been with the company since 2011 and recently came to us from the corporate wing of New York’s real-time desk. Both here and in New York, she has done it all, from editing and slotting to running the digital editions and working with the art department to secure homepage charts. She’s been with us here in Hong Kong since September. Before joining DJ/WSJ, she worked at Reuters for 3 ½ years, first as a correspondent and then as a subeditor. She graduated from Mount Carmel College in Bangalore, India. Anne grew up in Long Island and is a long-suffering New York Knicks fan.

Please join me in thanking David for all his hard work and in wishing him well in his new role. And please join me in congratulating Troy, Tom and Anne on their new appointments, which are effective immediately.