Blogging NewBios
Continued From Home Page
TOPICS:
John Acher - Thomson
Reuters
Cristina Alesci - Bloomberg News
Automotive Writers
Julia Boorstin - CNBC
Rob Cox - Breakingviews
Jessica Hall - Thomson Reuters
Gardiner Harris - NYT
Bob Herbert - NYT
Donald G. McNeil Jr. - NYT
Rob Schmitz - KQED
January 21, 2010
WSJ Names Stefanie Ilgenfritz to Oversee
Its Pharma and Health Beats
Stefanie Ilgenfritz, 43, has been named Bureau Chief of The Wall
Street Journal’s New York-based health group. She succeeds John
Carreyrou, who had oversight of the paper’s health and science coverage
since 2008.
Ms. Ilfenfritz’s appointed comes as something of a surprise, both because
she has had only limited hard news reporting and editing experience and
because she leapfrogs over other qualified candidates, such as Ron
Winslow, a veteran health and science reporter and editor. Mr.
Winslow is currently the health and science group's deputy editor.
Ms. Ilgenfritz, who joined the paper more than 19 years ago, has been
working for the Personal Journal section since 2002, most recently
carrying the title of deputy editor. The section emphasizes consumer
lifestyle topics rather than hard business and financial news.
Ms. Ilgenfritz did serve as an editor on two Pulitzer Prize-winning packages
of health stories and also previously worked as the health editor of
Personal Journal.
Among those she’ll now oversee, in addition to Mr. Winslow, are Jacob
Goldstein, Jonathan D. Rockoff and Shirley S. Wang.
Ms. Ilgenfritz, who lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, is married to Scott
Harrison Griff, 44, who like her attended the University of Michigan.
Her father, James, passed away in February 2009.
In a memo announcing her appointment, Robert Thomson, managing
editor, made no mention of the fate of Mr. Carreyrou, who first joined
Dow Jones in 1997.
Ms. Ilgenfritz will report to Matt Murray, deputy managing editor.
[To download Ms. Ilgenfritz's full
NewsBio immediately, 24/7, click
here.]
January 20, 2010
Ali Velshi: The 'Hairless Profit
of Doom'
The past year has been very eventful period for Ali Velshi, 40, who
recently remarried, published his first book and beginning this week is
relocating from New York to CNN’s Atlanta headquarters to anchor the 1 p.m.
to 3 p.m. (EST) edition of CNN Newsroom, the network’s early
afternoon general newscast.
Mr. Velshi, already one of CNN’s most visible correspondents because of his
extensive
coverage in 2008 and 2009 of the mortgage and financial crises and the
government’s stimulus efforts, was front-and-center as the prime anchor of
CNN’s highly viewed coverage of the attempted terrorist attack aboard a
Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day.
In announcing Mr. Velshi’s promotion to regular weekday anchor, Jon Klein,
President of CNN U.S., remarked: “Ali has enormous range as a broadcaster….
He’s passionate and smart, and brings a level of experience that viewers
expect from CNN.”
In Mr. Velshi’s case, he has also demonstrated that he is a workhorse,
serving simultaneously as chief business correspondent, a radio and weekend
television host, a frequent guest on other programs, an Internet social-networker
and a podcaster. Mr. Velshi has said that he seldom works fewer than 12
hours a day and during the height of the financial crisis was regularly
logging 20-hour-a-day marathons.
Mr. Velshi is a veteran financial journalist at CNN. He first joined CNN in
September 2001 as part of CNNfn, the network’s now-defunct business
and financial channel. Born in Nairobi to Indian parents, Mr. Velshi and his
family moved to Toronto when he was a year old. He was schooled in Canada
and cut his broadcast journalism teeth there.
Self-described as “an intense, caffeinated guy,” Mr. Velshi achieved pop
culture recognition for his often dour economic forecasts when Jon
Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, dubbed him “the
hairless profit of doom” – a moniker that stuck.
[To download Mr. Velshi's full NewsBio immediately,
24/7, click here.]
January 12, 2010
Health Beat Can Be Quite Personal: Two
NYT's Reporters Lose A Mother As Teens
Our newly updated NewsBios
profile of
Donald G. McNeil Jr., who covers infectious diseases for The
New York Times, reveals a journalist with an unusually rich personal and
professional background.
Since 1988, McNeil has penned well over 1,200 bylined articles for the
Times. Among these are some well-crafted first-person stories that have
included close-up narrations of his bungee-jumping off Victoria Falls;
getting a finger tattoo in place of a wedding ring; whale watching; cataract
surgery; attending a sleep clinic; serving in voluntary SARS quarantine; and
his undying affection for the ABC television program, Supernanny and
HBO’s Sex and the City.
But to me, the most memorable article he has written ran June 16, 2005, when
he revealed some personal emotional insights, which journalists often do –
if you know where to look.
McNeil, who turns 56 next month, talks about his mother, who starting at age
33 bore five children in eight years.
“She was actually a great 1950’s mom, with huge reserves of patience, cool
Halloween costumes and memorable Christmases, but when our spats woke her at
5 a.m., she could lay about us with a pink slipper with a sole like a
blackjack.
“When I was older, she broke my grandfather’s hand-carved Yale frat
initiation paddle on me, and was so upset at having snapped the heirloom
that she stabbed me with the handle.
“And yet I loved her.”
McNeil’s mother died when he was still a teen.
The tale struck me not only as sad but called to mind the premature death of
Sheila Hawkins Harris, mother of another New York Times health
reporter, Washington-based Gardiner Harris. She died of cancer at age
50, when Gardiner was only 14 years old.
I’m not sure that Don and Gardiner even know that they – two Times health
reporters – share such a painful adolescent loss. And I have no idea how
each of their careers were or were not shaped by the loss of a parent at
such tender ages.
What I do know, from having written or edited hundreds of
NewsBios of influential health
reporters, is that many of these journalists have had to cope with the
premature loss of an immediate family member or have had to battle with
serious health circumstances themselves.
The health beat is, for many, quite personal.
[To download Mr. Neil's full NewsBio immediately,
24/7, click here.]
January 4, 2010
NewsBios to Honor Top
Automotive Journalists
Surrounding the upcoming 103rd annual auto show, NewsBios will name
the ten most influential auto industry journalists of the year. Both
journalists and communications executives are invited to nominate those
reporters, columnists, bloggers, editors and producers who they deem most
worthy of the recognition.
The NewsBios honors are part of a beefed up effort to showcase those
women and men whose reporting sets the news agenda and becomes must reading
for industry executives and journalism competitors.
Later in 2010 NewsBios will also honor the ten most influential
journalists who cover healthcare, the law, the airlines industry,
telecommunications, Wall Street and other crucial business and financial
beats.
To nominate one or more journalists for recognition you can email us at
honors@newsbios.com. Please be sure to include the thinking behind your
recommendations. ALL nominations will be kept in strict confidence and
neither the individual nominator’s name or affiliation will be disclosed. It
helps us, however, to know who you are and why you have an ‘expert’ opinion
when it comes to news coverage.
December 3, 2009
Julia Boorstin - CNBC
Comcast Corp.’s agreement to take a majority ownership position in
NBC Universal is just the latest in a series of blockbuster
stories falling on Julia Boorstin’s media and entertainment beat at
CNBC.
Boorstin,
who turns 31 years old tomorrow (December 4th), has been front and center
for CNBC tracking media and entertainment giants and the seismic changes
that the Internet and Internet-related consumer habits are bringing.
Based in Los Angeles, Boorstin joined CNBC in May 2006 from Fortune,
where she covered media companies, retail, travel and the stock market,
among other topics.
NewsBios first named Boorstin to its
30 Under 30 list of up-and-coming journalists in 2003, and then again in
2004 and 2006.
Boorstin, who grew up in California, was married in Beverly Hills on
December 16, 2007 to William “Couper” Samuelson. Samuelson, now 30, has
worked in the film industry and this summer joined a Paramount Pictures
affiliate as a vice president.
As the New York Times noted in detailing their courtship, Boorstin’s late
grandfather, historian Daniel J. Boorstin, had been friends with
Couper’s grandfather, economist Paul A. Samuelson.
A 2000 graduate of Princeton, Boorstin earlier told
NewsBios that one factor that motivated her to become a
journalist was “a life-changing seminar taught by Pulitzer-Prize
winner John McPhee [who] reinforced that journalism is an
unparalleled way to learn about the world.”
December 2, 2009
Bob Herbert - The New York Times
Bob Herbert, The New York Times opinion columnist, is one of
dozens of Op-Ed and editorial writers who are in regular demand by
NewsBios clients.
Herbert,
64, expresses his views clearly, without hesitation or extravagant rhetoric.
Many of his articles, which appear twice weekly, are based on tenacious
reporting that takes him to urban centers and rural outposts throughout
America.
Like many influential journalists, Herbert had a humble start. His father,
Chester, owned a succession of upholstery shops. What Chester may have
lacked in terms of material wealth, he made up for with an abundance of
common sense and a strong work ethic.
“Chester Herbert was a tough guy, in the best sense, who grew up in the
Depression and worked hard as hell to raise a successful family in the
postwar years,” Herbert wrote in May 2008.
NewsBios has always believed that if you
want to get inside the head of influential journalists it helps to know who
their roles models have been – both in life and professionally.
Download Bob Herbert's NewsBio Instantly
here.
December 1, 2009
John Acher - Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters’ John Acher has reported in relative obscurity
from Europe’s Nordic and Baltic countries for nearly 14 years.
Covering mostly business news from Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden,
Acher has tallied more than 1,230 bylines – but few real blockbusters
outside the annual awarding of Nobel Prizes.
Now Acher is the right man in the right place as nearly 100 heads of state,
including U.S. President Barack Obama, will be dropping in on his
Copenhagen base later this month for the United Nations climate
conference.
Acher, who relocated to Denmark from Oslo this past summer, has been doing
“curtain raisers” on the UN conference with colleagues Alister Doyle,
James Grubel and Erik Matzen.
Acher is American-born and we’re not sure what drew him to Finland,
where his Reuters’ byline first began appearing with regularity in 1996.
Jessica Hall - Thomson Reuters
As Reuter’s team leader for Mergers and Acquisitions, much of
Jessica Hall’s focus of late has been on Kraft Foods
Inc.’s $16.1 billion bid for Cadbury Plc. Based in Philadelphia,
Hall, 39, keeps an especially close watch on retailers, healthcare and
telecommunications activity.
In November, Hall led a discussion with FDA Chief Margaret Hamburg
at the Thomson Reuters Global Health Summit.
Hall was one of NewsBios up-and-coming 30
Under 30 award recipients in 2000. At the time, she recalled that one of
the difficulties of being so young was earning the respect of the executives
she was required to interview. “One time, I had to go interview a CEO who
thought I was an intern and asked me to get him coffee,” she told us. “I
replied that I was there to interview him, but when he did find the girl who
was going to get him coffee, I would like a Diet Coke.”
Download Jessica Hall's NewsBio Instantly
here.
November 30, 2009
Rob Cox - Breakingviews
Good things have been
happening for
Rob Cox, US Editor of breakingviews and one of
the service’s founding staff members. Cox, 42, was a recipient of
NewsBios’ 30 Under 30 honors in
1996. He is one of many winners to go on to great business journalism
careers.
Thomson Reuters acquired breakingviews in October, paying a
reported $18 million. Not clear if Cox received any of the proceeds, but he
likely did. Ex-FTers Hugo Dixon and Jonathan Ford launched the
service circa 1999/2000.
We updated Cox’s NewsBio this month. It now
runs 3,943 words and includes earlier iterations. I was struck by the
quality of his media connections on Facebook, including Alan
Murray, Wall Street Journal;
Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times;
Andy Serwer, Fortune; David Callaway, MarketWatch; Dennis
Kneale, CNBC;
Francesco Guerrera, Financial Times; Gabriella
Stern, Dow Jones; and Thorold Barker, Wall Street Journal.
Among his PR connections are four folks at
Brunswick Group: Cindy
Leggett-Flynn, Dominic McMullan, Mike Buckley and
Tim Payne. No other firm comes close.
Other professional connections include: Chris Cockerill, UBS; Gerard
Meuchner, Eastman Kodak; John Loughney, Nokia; Jonathan
Friedland, Walt Disney Company; Julie Mathis, Hill & Knowlton;
Kristin Lemku, JPMorgan Chase; Laura Kline, Weber Shandwick;
Nick Ragone, Ketchum; Storm Duncan, Credit Suisse; Ted Meyer,
and Deutsche Bank Group.
Cox and his wife, Hannah, are 1989 grads of the University of Vermont.
Download Rob Cox's NewsBios instantly
here.
Cristina Alesci - Bloomberg News
Covering private equity heavyweights such as Blackstone Group
and Apollo Global Management is no easy task, even for veteran Bloomberg
reporters such as Jason Kelly,
Jonathan Keener and Katherine
Burton.
Which is why
Cristina Alesci’s first year at Bloomberg has been all the more
impressive. A 2008 graduate from Ci
ty
University of New York’s Graduate
School of Business, Alesci jumped directly into the deep end of the private
equity pool.
In a video accepting the Frederic Wiegold Award for Excellence in Journalism
handed out in May 2009, Alesci credits CUNY with instilling in her an “intensity
and enthusiasm for news,” adding that the school is like New York itself – “it
rewards talent, initiative and sweat.” Judging by her first year, Alesci has
ample supplies of all three.
Credit, too, belongs to Larry Edelman, Bloomberg’s team leader for
investing, for cultivating her talents.
Download Cristina Alesci's NewsBio Instantly
here.
Rob Schmitz - KQED
Some media relations and corporate communications executives
mistakenly believe that NewsBios prepares profiles
strictly on nationally recognized business and financial journalists. That we
do. But we also track influential journalists in regional and international
markets, as well as reporters and editors who specialize in important industry
sectors.
A
good example is
Rob Schmitz, 36, Los Angeles bureau chief for KQED, a respected
Northern California public radio station based in San Francisco. KQED
provides 24-hour international, national, regional and local news and produces
The California Report, which is heard throughout the state.
Schmitz is superbly well educated, especially on topics that pertain to China.
He has visited the Asian giant repeatedly since 2001 and lived there for two
years as a Peace Corp volunteer.
Like so many journalists, Schmitz married a fellow journalist. The couple has a
son, born in October of last year.
Schmitz is frequently heard on National Public Radio, Marketplace
and Public Radio International and delivers a steady stream of reports on
energy, the environment and climate-related topics.
Remember, if NewsBios doesn’t already have a
dossier on a journalist who is important to your company’s or client’s
reputation, we can build one for you typically within 24 hours (often sooner).
Download Rob Schmitz's NewsBio Instantly
here.
