Newspaper & Mailroom

Houston Chronicle expands energy coverage with FuelFix chapter in business section

Friday 21. September 2012 - Media Group also bolsters business staff with new hire

The Houston Chronicle Media Group today expanded its energy coverage in the newspaper’s business section. FuelFix, the award-winning website providing energy industry news, analysis, trends, market updates and job listings from the Chronicle’s business reporters, now will be published as a chapter in the business section pages each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Anchoring the new section will be reporting by the Chronicle’s energy staff, including award-winning columnist Loren Steffy, Jennifer A. Dlouhy reporting from Washington, and business reporters Jeannie Kever, Emily Pickrell, Simone Sebastian and Zain Shauk. Joining the team next month is Harry R. Weber, who covered the Deepwater Horizon story for the Associated Press.
“I’m pleased to welcome Harry to our energy staff,” Chronicle business editor Laura Goldberg said. “His tenacious reporting style and extensive experience covering the oil spill make him a valuable addition to our team of talented journalists who excel at providing comprehensive coverage of the energy industry from exploration and production to pipelines and refineries.”
Extending FuelFix to print from the web, where it has attracted nearly 2 million unique visitors this year, is a natural next step in the Chronicle’s expanding coverage of one of the region’s most important industries, Chronicle president John T. O’Loughlin said.
“Six of the top ten employers in Houston are energy sector companies,” O’Loughlin said. “In a city where everyone is both talking about and affected by oil and gas, we know how important it is to host this conversation.”
Joining the Chronicle as the charter advertising sponsor is Statoil, the petroleum refining company that this year was named the top business in its field on Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” list. The firm also advertises on FuelFix.com.
“As an integrated, technology-based international company, Statoil sees great value in FuelFix,” said Rob Cravaritis, the Chronicle’s vice president of recruitment and marketplace advertising. “This inaugural roll-out provides Statoil an opportunity to have a significant voice in the conversation in our world’s energy capital.”