Going back: Happiness better then safety

At least three journalists are returning to Advance Publications newsrooms.

Former Star Ledger political columnist and Montclair resident TOM MORAN, who quit the paper in February 2008 for a safe job in PR, is back at the Ledger. The tip came from Journalism gets one back over on the Baristanet.

She refers to "After safe exit, a journalist returns" in the New Yrok Times, where David Carr talks about ways Moran's mood changed while he worked outside the news business and interviewed the editor who hired Moran back. “We are missing a lot after last year’s departures, but one of the bigger things we were missing was a political columnist during a very overheated gubernatorial race," Jim Willse is quoted as saying.

At NJ Voices, Linda Stamato welcomed the political columnist back. Moran's got a post up in NJ Voices - reminding us there are seven weeks until the NJ governor's race is settled.

In Michigan, JENNIFER JORDAN KILDE has returned to The Flint Journal. I first noticed her staff status on a print report on the people who guessed the weight of a Dale Chihuly chandelier in the Flint Institute of Arts. She recently confirmed her return as a features writer.

Also back at The Journal is TERI BANAS, who met her husband John Foren when both were at the newspaper. She's been back in the suburbs but also has had some Flint datelines.

Also going back is another Advance newspaper. The Oregonian is going to give readers more "local daily news" as part of a "strategy by the newspaper to get back to giving readers daily news and information that's more specifically targeted to their part of the world -- where they live, work, have kids in schools."

Also promised are pages specifically targeted to specific cities on OregonLive.com