Columnist Suspended Over Investment

A business columnist for the San Jose Mercury News was suspended after earning $9,000 from an investment opportunity she got from a local executive.

Chris Nolan, who writes the newspaper’s “Talk Is Cheap” column, which focuses on the high-tech industries of Silicon Valley, expressed regrets. But she said she hadn’t considered it to be a conflict of interest because the executive was a longtime friend and she had not planned to write about him because of the friendship.

Nolan said she notified an assistant business editor when she was offered the investment opportunity and that she wasn’t told not to proceed. Neither sought other guidance, the Mercury News said.

Executive Editor David Yarnold said he was upset when he learned about the transaction Thursday from an item in the Wall Street Journal. He said Nolan would be suspended indefinitely while news executives look into the matter.

The newspaper’s ethics policy says staff members should not make news decisions about companies in which they have a financial interest.

Dean DeBiase, head of Autoweb.com of Santa Clara, an online car-buying service, let Nolan buy 500 shares at the initial offering price of $14. She sold them later for $29 and $45. Such opportunities, while legal, aren’t usually available to ordinary investors.