BusinessWeek Hires New B-School Chief

Francesca Levy

Francesca Levy

Bloomberg BusinessWeek has hired Francesca Levy, a senior editor at LinkedIn, to lead its coverage of business schools. Levy joined the magazine today (Jan. 27) and succeeds Louis Lavelle who abruptly left BusinessWeek in early November.

For Levy, who has worked for Forbes and Associated Press, her new position is in one sense a return trip. As a reporting intern at BusinessWeek during the summer of 20008, she wrote features for BusinessWeek.com’s business school channel. She also produced slideshows, appeared in video interviews, and managed web forums.

“I’m charged with refreshing the coverage, which should be a challenge and a thrill,” she says.

Francesca Levy had been with LinkedIn for a little more than two years, serving as a senior editor for all aspects of content on the site, including LinkedIn’s Influencer program and its customer professional news website, LinkedIn Today. In that role, she edited original work from contributors, curated news and wrote regular posts. She also managed monthly feature content packages.

Francesca Levy graduated from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in 2008. She also has a BA in cultural studies from New School University.

Levy is the magazine’s first full-time business school hire since losing Lavelle, an associate editor who had been business schools editor since 2005, and Geoff Gloeckler, a staff editor who had covered management education since March of 2005. The pair, who together had 16 years of experience covering the business school beat, left on the day Bloomberg BusinessWeek published its latest rankings of Executive MBA and part-time MBA programs.

The stories were authored by Gloeckler who reported to Lavelle. Their departure dealt a serious blow to BusinessWeek’s coverage of business education. It also followed the decision earlier in the year by long-time business education staffer Alison Damast to quit the magazine following a maternity leave that began last December. Damast had covered MBA issues for six years.

The magazine also noted that Jonathan Rodkin has been named Rankings and Research Coordinator. He is responsible for redeveloping Bloomberg Businessweek’s rankings of MBA, Undergrad, Executive Education, EMBA, and Part-Time programs. After conducting interviews with key rankings stakeholders – including b-school students, alumni, administrators, faculty, and employers – Rodkin will focus on how to make the rankings more useful, comprehensive, and relevant. He will also streamline the rankings data collection processes and strengthen BBW’s validation protocols.

Rodkin has a background in quantitative research design and survey analysis, and was previously with the Strength in Numbers Consulting Group, a research and evaluation firm based in Brooklyn.

The magazine also said that Ira Sager is the Business School Commentary Editor. A long-time member of the Businessweek.com team, he is now responsible for soliciting commentary and outside contributions for the B-Schools channel, and will serve as the dedicated producer for the channel.

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