I am pleased to announce that Pete Weitzner will be joining the Business Journal’s newsroom as its new editor, commencing the last week of May. He joins an illustrious list of impressive business journalists who have worked alongside me in that capacity: Rick Reiff, Michael Lyster and Jerry Sullivan.
Pete will first complete his 19th year as a journalism professor at Chapman University. He will continue to offer his very popular “Journalism in the 21st Century” at night at Chapman, even as he focuses his energy on taking the Business Journal’s newsroom to new heights.
Pete has a long history as a business journalist in Orange County, arriving here in 1990, and serving long stints as business editor of the Orange County News Channel (then owned by Freedom Communications) and as host and executive producer of the Chapman Business Report, which was broadcast for 14 years on PBS SoCal.
Not only has Pete received the highest recognition granted by our local Press Club, the Sky Dunlap Award, but he knows his way around financial reports. Before Pete received his master’s in journalism from Northwestern University, he earned his CPA and worked in internal audit at Fortune 10 company Johnson & Johnson.
As I welcome Pete to the helm of our newsroom, I also want to extend my sincere best wishes to Jerry Sullivan in his new endeavors, along with my gratitude. Jerry has had three tours of duty with us, the first in the 1990s, and has been an integral part of the tradition of Business Journal journalistic excellence.
Sullivan is now founder and chief content officer of ViewPointOC, a digitally based, countywide community publication that’s preparing to launch this quarter to serve readers and local sponsors as “Orange County’s Common Ground.” He also is working separately for Irvine-based Cornerstone Communications, a boutique communications firm comprised of award-winning, veteran journalists who have worked at major newspapers and respected media organizations, and seasoned public relations and corporate communications executives.
I also want to commend and pay tribute to the wonderful job that Hannah Mitchell has been doing and, I know, will continue to do as interim editor until the spring semester is out.
Weitzner can be reached at weitzner@ocbj.com.
—Richard Reisman
