David Colker promoted to assistant business editor

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Here is a memo from Business Editor John Corrigan to the staff regarding the promotion of business reporter David Colker:

Over the years we’ve relied on David Colker for brightly written takes on everything from Bratz dolls to discount caskets. Today, I’m happy to report that David is being promoted to assistant business editor, effective immediately.

David is one of the pioneers of technology reporting, creating The Times’ first technology column -- Cyberia -- way back in the mid-1990s. More recently, he has been a key member of the technology team, reporting on the latest advances in computers, music devices, social networking and even those old-fashioned television sets.

In his new position, David will anchor our late desk. His duties will include scrambling coverage on late-breaking stories and keeping the Business blogs and website fresh and interesting in the afternoon and evening hours.

A graduate of Penn State University, David is a former radio disc jockey whose byline first captured notice at the old Herald Examiner in the mid-1980s. He joined The Times in 1988, serving in a variety of roles in Business and features. In 1996 he was assigned to prepare the obituary for an ailing Timothy Leary. Taking the job with characteristic gusto, David managed to be at Leary’s bedside when he passed, thus making it unnecessary to attribute the LSD impresario’s last words.