Paula Gardner named News Director at AnnArbor.com; Nathan Bomey promoted to Business Director
Paula Gardner, a veteran, award-winning journalist who has led our business coverage since we launched in 2009, has been named News Director at AnnArbor.com.
In her new role, she will oversee local news coverage, including government, education, police and courts, health and regional news.
Paula has done an exceptional job of bringing our business coverage into the digital age. She is respected in our newsroom and in the community for her professionalism and the caliber of her work. She is an ideal choice to lead our overall news efforts.
Paula Gardner
Both began their new duties Friday.
Gardner has some two decades of experience in the news business, much of it spent working as a news reporter and editor in this area.
She started her career at the former Ypsilanti Press, where she covered the police beat and served as both city editor then managing editor. When the Ypsilanti Press folded in 1994, The Ann Arbor News launched a new Ypsilanti edition and Gardner joined that publication as its city editor.
She later moved to The Ann Arbor News newsroom as an assistant city editor, and then joined the Detroit Free Press as assistant Oakland editor, supervising a reporting team based in Oakland County.
In late 2002, Gardner left the Free Press to report for the startup Ann Arbor Business Review, which launched in January 2003. She later took over as editor of that edition and Oakland Business Review, and later led the print and online editorial direction for the statewide Michigan Business Review team.
Nathan Bomey
Gardner led that transition, and has built a large and rapidly growing online audience for local business coverage, emphasizing credibility and immediacy in the reporting that appears on our web site, as well as a Business Review section that appears every Sunday in print. She also has been the driver behind our weekly Business Review weekly email newsletter and breaking-news alerts.
Gardner, a University of Michigan graduate, lives in Ann Arbor with her husband and children, and she's active in neighborhood and school activities.
Bomey, a 2006 political science and journalism graduate of Eastern Michigan University, got involved in journalism as a junior at Saline High School in 2001, when he became a part-time staff writer at The Saline Reporter and The Milan News-Leader. He graduated from Saline High in 2002 but maintained his job as a reporter for the weekly newspapers throughout his college career. At EMU, he held several leadership positions at the student newspaper, The Eastern Echo, including managing editor and news editor.
Bomey joined the Ann Arbor Business Review as a technology reporter in September 2006 and later added leadership responsibilities as associate editor.
At AnnArbor.com, he has played a key role in our coverage of Gov. Rick Snyder's campaign and administration, the bankruptcy filing of Borders Group Inc., the closure of General Motors' Willow Run plant and the repositioning of Ann Arbor's former Pfizer property. He won two awards in the recently revealed 2010 Michigan Associated Press Editorial Association contest, including a first place award for news column and a second place award for feature story.
In his new role at AnnArbor.com, Bomey will lead our business coverage and continue to cover business stories.
Comments
Ruth Kraut
Sat, Apr 30, 2011 : 12:12 a.m.
I'm confused as to why you haven't updated the Contact Us page? When are these effective?
DennisP
Mon, Apr 18, 2011 : 8:13 p.m.
Good! I find both of them to be two principal reasons why I keep coming back to AA.com. Paula gives great insight into what is really the news behind the news. Nathan seems to always be ahead of the curve on the latest stories. Glad to hear of the promotions.
lumberg48108
Mon, Apr 18, 2011 : 12:43 p.m.
You have to love message boards for newspapers ... no matter what you publish you will get the varied responses we see here ... .com could have hired/promoted Woodward and Bernstein and the commenters were both attack and celebrate their choices... I know the common perception is that message boards lead to more "clicks" (because posters return to see if comments were made about their comments) but what real value do they have? If the message boards were constructed in such a way where the user had to search to find them and they were not attached at the bottom of the story - you would get fewer (crazy) responses ... would that be the end of the world?
KathyToth
Mon, Apr 18, 2011 : 11:30 a.m.
Nathan and Paula, I follow your work and know you are the right choices!
Alan Goldsmith
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 6:03 p.m.
"Will Nathan Bomey's vacant business reporter position be filled?" Maybe with another Washington Times intern, which was left out of the biography here...?
Bonsai
Mon, Apr 18, 2011 : 1:55 a.m.
idiotic thing to say -- judge his work, not his internships
godsbreath64
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 6:21 p.m.
Maybe with another Washington Times intern, which was left out of the biography here...? Great comment! Res ipsa locquiter
Tom Whitaker
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 5:52 p.m.
Will Nathan Bomey's vacant business reporter position be filled?
Tony Dearing
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 8:20 p.m.
Tom, yes, Nate's position will be filled.
godsbreath64
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 4:39 p.m.
"At AnnArbor.com, he has played a key role in our coverage of Gov. Rick Snyder's campaign and administration..." What an indictment of a LACK of professionalism by these two. Both perfunctory campaign and subsequent maladministration has been enabled by their hometown gushing indifference to the Michigan and Federal constitutions and Snyder's failure, refusal, or neglect to uphold such. There has been zero objectivity with these two clown's work. As soon as the clock reaches the top of the hour again, ol' Nathen with be updating his latest "story" with what he should have worked on before publishing it the first place. This article is pure comedy. Don't worry, it is only the annarbor.com we are referring to.
Bob Martel
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 3:18 p.m.
Congratulations to both of you!
Jeff Renner
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 3:05 p.m.
Congratulations to Paula. I just hope that this doesn't mean that she'll no longer be doing reporting, because that would be a loss for us readers.
mrblond
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 2:15 p.m.
Paula Gardner's columns are the reason I visit AnnArbor.com. Congratulation Ms. Gardner.
PformerPfizer
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 1:53 p.m.
Congrats to both Gardner & Bomey, both excellent reporters and people. AnnArbor.com is a respected online outlet, rather than just another news aggregator, largely because of them. All the best.
Bonsai
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 1:36 p.m.
who was the "news director" before this? is this a reorganization or a new position? will you be adding a business reporter to replace Nathan Bomey?
Tony Dearing
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 3:12 p.m.
Thanks for asking. This is an existing position, previously held by Amalie Nash. We will be hiring a business reporter to replace Nate.
David Cahill
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 11:53 a.m.
Gardner is an excellent choice for news director! She has gone behind the scenes often to dig out the real stories. AnnArbor.com also made an excellent choice in publicizing these new appointments.
Ricebrnr
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 2:46 p.m.
I agree. The business section is the one piece of AA.com where I expect and consistently get actual investgative journalism. Ms Gardner, good luck. the rest of this blog certainly is in dire need of the same
Alan Goldsmith
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 10:47 a.m.
"At AnnArbor.com, he has played a key role in our coverage of Gov. Rick Snyder's campaign and administration..." You got that right.
robert
Sun, Apr 17, 2011 : 9:24 a.m.
Wow!