NEW YORK (ABP) — Associated Baptist Press has launched a news bureau in the world's media capital, New York.
ABP Assistant Editor Hannah Elliott opened the independent news service's New York bureau March 15, a little more than a year after she joined ABP's staff and began running its Dallas bureau.
Elliott's husband, Spencer, recently accepted a promotion with the financial-services firm JPMorgan, transferring him from its Dallas office to the world's financial center in New York. That move gave ABP the chance to expand the agency's geographical presence into New York's news-rich environment, ABP leaders said.
Elliott will continue to fill the assistant editor's role, which includes writing, editing and posting stories online. She said she was excited to continue her work for ABP, noting the new location “opens more opportunities to provide relevant, provocative news for our readers.”
“Of course, there will be new challenges and benefits with the change, but I expect to maintain the nature, focus and subject of the work I have done in Dallas,” she said.
Associated Baptist Press was founded in 1990 as the nation's first and only independent news service for Baptists. In 2000, it opened its first satellite bureau in Washington to cover news emanating from the nation's capital. The Dallas bureau was added soon after.
Elliott operated that bureau out of the offices of the Baptist Standard, an ABP partner agency and the newspaper of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
ABP Executive Editor Greg Warner said the organization plans to re-staff the vacant Dallas bureau when funds are available. In the meantime, he said, ABP will rely on the Baptist Standard to fill that need.
“With bureaus in Washington, Dallas and now a third in New York, ABP is expanding its geographical reach in ways never before possible,” Warner said. “The move into New York is more feasible now because of our recent switch to virtual offices. Our state-of-the-art Internet phone and computer systems link all three bureaus seamlessly with our Jacksonville [Fla.] headquarters.”
ABP's New York office is operating temporarily out of Elliott's home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. She said she and Warner are pursuing options for more permanent office space elsewhere in the city's main borough.
Last year ABP and the Baptist Standard launched a strategic alliance to seek ways to work together more closely and efficiently. The two organizations share an administrative assistant, Beth Campbell, based in Dallas, and plan to share a second staff member later this year. Other news organizations are expected to join the alliance soon.
Marv Knox, editor of the Standard, said Elliott's move to New York presents “a terrific opportunity” to strengthen the partnership between ABP and the Baptist Standard.
“Working form New York, Hannah will provide a new dimension and greater depth to our reporting on the people, events and trends that impact our readers,” he said. “This is a new focus unparalleled in Baptist journalism. And while ABP continues to seek a Dallas bureau chief, the Standard will cover Texas and the Southwest as we fulfill our commitment to ABP and the other papers who will partner with us.”
Hugh Tobias of Jacksonville, a member of the ABP board of directors, agreed the move is “a golden opportunity” for ABP. “I think we've all enjoyed observing Hannah's professional growth, and this is a great next step. I hope this move will open doors we haven't even thought about yet.”
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Read more:
ABP, Baptist Standard form 'strategic alliance' (4/11/2006)
ABP hires former intern to fill news editor role from Texas (1/19/2006)