By: Helen Jung, AP Business Writer (AP) The news Web site MSNBC.com has hired a former employee to be its editor in chief, a position that has been empty since Merrill Brown quit in June.
Dean Wright, 52, one of MSNBC.com's original producers, said he will start Feb. 10. MSNBC is an Internet and cable television channel joint venture between Microsoft Corp. and NBC News.
Prior to his first go-round with the site in 1996, Wright was a reporter and supervisor for The Associated Press in its Washington D.C. bureau. He also worked for newspapers, including
The Baltimore Sun,
The Louisville Courier-Journal,
The Kansas City Star and
The San Jose Mercury News.
Wright most recently worked for AOL Time Warner, where he was senior director for programming integration for America Online. There, he led efforts to take content from Time Inc. Web sites, repackage it and incorporate it into AOL's network.
"Dean's broad experience managing daily news production -- for online and print publications -- has taught him what news consumers want in today's multimedia environment," said Scott Moore, general manager for news and information at MSN, a division of Microsoft.
Wright helped launch MSNBC.com in 1996, starting as a producer and eventually becoming managing editor for news under Brown. He left the company in 2000, but said he is looking forward to moving back to the Seattle area from New York.
Wright said he is not planning major changes, but wants to make the site "a bit more populist" with more coverage of lifestyle and entertainment. MSNBC.com is regularly one of the most popular Internet news and information sites, according to netScore/comScore Media Metrix.
"There's lots of room to increase coverage of popular topics and affect users' lives without giving up on the essential mission to keep people informed," he said.
MSNBC.com has faced tough challenges in its almost seven-year history.
When Brown left, he cited declining ad revenue and a revolving door of managers -- six bosses in six years -- among his reasons for quitting.
The company has also undergone a few rounds of layoffs since 2001, and now has 170 people, including about 90 editorial employees.
Brown has since taken a senior executive position with Microsoft rival RealNetworks Inc. in Seattle.
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