Rob Byers Email & Phone Number

I first became involved in journalism during my sophomore year at West Virginia University, when I joined the student newspaper. I began at the Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette two days after my graduation, working first as a reporter, then desk editor and project editor, and ultimately as executive editor. My responsibilities included managing all newsroom departments, budgeting and guiding news coverage. In July 2015, my focus turned to the combination of the Gazette and its longtime competitor, the Charleston Daily Mail. I was part of a three-person team dedicated to combining the newsrooms and staffs into an operation larger than either organization had ever seen. By April 2017, the Gazette-Mail was known as a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, after reporter Eric Eyre won the award for investigative reporting. But less than a year later, the small family-owned paper was in bankruptcy, and after a new owner took over, layoffs ensued. Today, I am the enterprise and investigations editor at The Courier Journal in Louisville, working again with a talented newsroom in a great town for news. A little more than a year after my arrival in Louisville, I was part of a team that launched an investigation into a flurry of last-minute pardons issued by the outgoing governor. That investigation led to The Courier Journal winning the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news.

Listed skills include Journalism, Newspapers, Management, Editing, and 10 others.

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  West Virginia University

  Journalism