Chris Roush, a veteran business journalist and SABEW member, has been named the organization’s first director of research.

The founding director of the Carolina Business News Initiative, which provides training for professional journalists and students at UNC-Chapel Hill will undertake research work geared for both professional and academic audiences.

His first project in the volunteer position will be an examination of salaries of business journalists.

“Chris has been a significant contributor to SABEW for years,” said Rob Reuteman, SABEW president. “This new research role opens up a lot of possibilities for him to work with other veteran business journalists who have become teachers. And there is no end to relevant research topics that deserve attention.”

Roush is a past member of the SABEW Board of Governors and hosted SABEW’s 2007 fall conference at UNC.

He blogs about business journalism at Talking Biz News, which won a SABEW “Best in Business” award in March 2010. He has also created a website on the history of business journalism and a website for college students interested in business journalism.

Roush, also director of the Master’s program at UNC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, this year was named Journalism Teacher of the Year by the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The judges noted that Roush “has become the expert in business journalism — not just at Chapel Hill, but throughout the country and even in other parts of the world.”

He is the author of two books about business journalism – “Show Me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication” (second edition, 2010) and “Profits and Losses: Business Journalism and its Role in Society” (2006). He is the co-author of “The Financial Writer’s Stylebook: 1,100 Business Terms Defined and Rated” (2010).

He is author or co-author of books about Home Depot (1999), Pacific Coast Feather Co. (2006), Alex Lee Inc. (2006) and Progress Energy (2009). He has also taught business journalism at Washington & Lee University and the University of Richmond.