AP Exec to Lead Reynolds Journalism Institute at Mizzou

"We're delighted to have persuaded Randy Picht to take this job," said Dean Mills, dean of the Missouri School of Journalism. "He's a perfect fit, having worked on both the news and business sides of journalism at a national level. And he has an impressive history of both innovating and bringing innovation into practice — precisely RJI's mission."

Picht was most recently the AP's bureau chief for Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. He began his AP career in Albany, N.Y., in 1983 and worked in bureaus in Rochester, N.Y., St. Louis, and Kansas City, Mo., before transferring to New York as business news editor in 1997. He was appointed director of the cooperative's stock market tables operation in 2000.

In 2002, Picht was named to lead Capitolwire, an Internet start-up business purchased by the AP. He was appointed chief of bureau for Missouri and Kansas in 2005 before taking on a series of special assignments for the AP beginning in 2008.