Deputy Editor Sugawara to Manage Post's Financial News Coverage

Sugawara will start her new job in January. (Julia Ewan - Twp)

Sandra Sugawara, who has been a longtime editor, reporter and overseas correspondent for The Washington Post, was named yesterday to become assistant managing editor for financial news.

Sugawara replaces Jill Dutt, who was named Thursday to take charge of weekend coverage.

Sugawara has been Dutt's deputy in the business section, and in the past year she has also coordinated the newspaper's coverage of immigration.

"Her leadership ensures a strong future for Financial as it continues to adapt its coverage to changing times, technology, demographics and economic conditions," the two top newsroom editors, Leonard Downie Jr. and Philip Bennett, said in a statement.

Sugawara, 53, called this "a great time to be in charge of business coverage."

She said the section "writes about people's every day lives -- how they work, how they communicate, how they shop, how they save for retirement."

She said that the newspaper and the financial news section "are trying to find creative ways of doing these stories, and it's a very exciting time to be doing this."

A native of Cincinnati, where she once was a contributor to the Cincinnati Enquirer on teenage matters, Sugawara graduated with a degree in economics from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. After graduation in 1975, she went to work for then-Rep. Norman Y. Mineta (D-Calif.) and spent two years on Capitol Hill before joining United Press International.

Afterward, she worked for the States News Service and as Washington correspondent for the Trenton Times before joining The Post in 1982.

As a Metro reporter she covered government in Fairfax County and in the newspaper's bureau in Richmond and later covered elections in Maryland.

After her move to the business desk, she reported on local business, defense contracting and telecom.

Subsequently, she spent four years abroad, from 1995 to 1999, as the newspaper's Asian economics correspondent.

Back again in Washington, she edited almost all aspects of financial coverage, Downie, who is executive editor, and Bennett, the managing editor, said in their statement. In addition, they said, she deepened coverage of minority businesses and the economic impact of immigration.

As Dutt's deputy for the past two years, they said, she helped transform the section's mission, look and content. She was credited for improving her staff and finding new areas to cover.

She is to take over the section in January.