(December 29, 2005) -- The Long Beach Press-Telegram has chosen to move veteran reporter Jason Gewirtz from his City Hall beat -- one he has handled with insight and intellectual honesty since 2000 -- into an editor's chair at the paper's Business section.

Management's move comes just as LB enters the 2006 election cycle, a period in which Mr. Gewirtz's accumulated knowledge of City Hall -- an institutional memory -- could have strengthened the paper's coverage.

Mr. Gewirtz broke serious stories. He tackled complex subjects. He is a superlative reporter.

We wish him luck as City Editor of the PT's Business section. We hope he got a raise with that editor's chair.

In telling its readers about this newsroom change (and others) in a story today, the PT didn't report Mr. Gewirtz's replacement. That struck us as odd for such a high visibility assignment...so we called the PT newsroom this morning and asked.

"So, who's your new City Hall reporter?" No one who knew and could say was available.