WSJ’s real-time desk names senior editor

Wall Street Journal real-time editor Steve Wisnefski sent out the following staff promotion on Tuesday:

I am pleased to announce that Sheila Courter will be joining the RealTime Desk in New York as a senior editor. Sheila brings two decades of experience at The Wall Street Journal to this important new role, in which she will edit and help shepherd major breaking news stories to ensure all our digital platforms are served quickly and expertly.

Sheila comes to her new role from the U.S. News Desk, where she has served as a deputy overseeing the Journal’s national news coverage online. She was part of the team that won several awards for its coverage of the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act decision, including the National Press Foundation’s 2012 Excellence in Online Journalism Award.

Sheila has helped manage the real-time coverage of many major breaking U.S. News stories since she joined the desk in 2010, from the midterm and presidential elections to the Boston Marathon bombings. She began as a news assistant in 1993, and had stints as night editor, page-one slot, deputy copy chief and hub desk chief.

That wide array of experience, combined with her exceptional writing, editing and communication skills, make Sheila ideally suited to a position on the RealTime Desk that involves driving news coverage, coordinating with journalists throughout the newsroom and mentoring colleagues.

Sheila will start in her new position in May and will report to me. Please join me in wishing her much success.