WSJ to re-enter Canada

Wall Street Journal deputy managing editor Nik Deogun and international news editor Rebecca Blumenstein sent out the following message to staff Thursday:

“We are pleased to announce that The Wall Street Journal, after a nearly three year hiatus, is re-establishing a beachhead in Canada. Starting in August, Phred Dvorak will move from San Francisco to Toronto to be the Journal’s Canada correspondent. Business, political and economic stories from Canada are obviously of importance to our global readership.

“Phred began her journalism career in 1997 in Japan with Bloomberg News , after nearly a decade in Tokyo doing everything from running a textile store to translating Shiseido fat-analyzer manuals. She joined the Journal’s Tokyo bureau in 1999 as the banking reporter during Japan’s financial crisis. She moved to the technology beat in 2003 and was appointed deputy bureau chief in 2004. Since 2006, she’s been covering management issues out of San Francisco.

“Phred received an undergraduate degree from Yale University and a double master’s degree from UC Berkeley, where she wrote two theses on the Japanese cartoon character, Sailor Moon. Phred is fluent in Japanese, can make her way through a menu in Thai and will soon master all things Canadian. Her short piece on Canada bestowing citizenship to unsuspecting Americans remains one of the best read stories of the year on wsj.com.

“Phred will report to the international desk and will work closely with our colleagues at Dow Jones Newswires in Canada.”

The Journal closed its bureaus in Calgary, Montreal and Toronto in late 2006, affecting six staff members.