There’s change at the top of the Business Journal’s editor ranks.
After nearly 10 years as the OCBJ’s editor, Rick Reiff is moving into a new, part-time position of executive editor. Succeeding Reiff as editor is Michael Lyster, the OCBJ’s former senior reporter and currently the assistant technology editor of Investor’s Business Daily, the 306,000-circulation national business newspaper based in Los Angeles.
Lyster, 33, will assume responsibility for the paper’s editorial operations, assisted by managing editor Roger Bloom. Reiff will continue to write the page 3 OC Insider column, edit stories and make other contributions to the paper. The changes will take effect in mid-May.
Lyster moved from the Business Journal to IBD in late 1997. As a reporter for IBD, he covered Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and other leading companies. As an editor, he recently led the expansion of IBD’s Internet & Technology section, including the launch of a second page that combines tech coverage with detailed stock charts and industry data for investors.
Previously, Lyster spent four years at the Business Journal covering technology, international trade and other subjects.
Lyster, a native of Orange County, lives in Fullerton with his wife Diane, an executive assistant to the president of Biosense Webster Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company in Diamond Bar. The couple has an 8-month-old son, Maxwell.
“From high-tech Irvine to the busy streets of Little Saigon, Orange County is an exciting place,” Lyster said. “I look forward to telling the story of how this place where I grew up is changing. Rick Reiff has built the Business Journal into a top-notch business publication. I’ll be working on version 2.0.”
Reiff, 47, was editor of the Business Journal for all but the first few months of the 1990s, chronicling both the region’s economic recession and its resurgence. Working with publisher Richard Reisman, he turned a relatively obscure paper into one of the nation’s premier business journals in terms of readership and financial performance. When he arrived in October of 1990, the paper had fewer than 3,000 paid subscribers; today, it has more than 13,000.
Reiff is a native of Chicago and graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. At the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, he was the lead reporter on the paper’s coverage of the takeover battle between Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and corporate raider James Goldsmith, which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for general reporting. After brief editing stints at Business First in Columbus, Ohio and the Westchester (N.Y.) Business Journal, he joined Forbes magazine in 1988 as a staff writer in its Chicago bureau before coming to Orange County.
“After nearly 10 years in the best gig I’ve ever had, it’s time to step back a little from the day-to-day grind and expand my professional and personal horizons,” Reiff said. “When I’m not contributing to the OCBJ, I’ll be free to freelance, consult and pursue other opportunities. I expect to start teaching, and maybe I’ll write a book.”
Reiff added, “I’m delighted for Mike. He was my first choice to succeed me, by virtue of his experience and knowledge, particularly in technology, his disposition and his lifelong connection with Orange County. Our readers are in fine hands.”
Said Reisman: “While no publisher could ever dream of having a better editor than Rick Reiff, I am overjoyed at the prospect of bringing in a new editor of the talent and character of Mike Lyster. With his expertise in technology, Mike will enhance our already strong coverage of this area. And, of course, the Business Journal will continue to benefit from Rick’s experience and abilities.” n
