Veteran Spokane journalist Linn Parish, who worked as a staff reporter at the Journal of Business from 1998 to 2006, will rejoin the Journal's news staff on Jan. 1 as deputy editor.

Parish, 39, will work with Kim Crompton, who will take over as the newspaper's editor on that date, to guide the newspaper's editorial department.

Crompton, currently news editor at the Journal, will succeed Richard Ripley, who has been editor since 1995 and plans to retire at the end of the year. In another management change, as reported earlier, Assistant Editor Paul Read will leave the newsroom to become operations manager.

Parish, a 1995 University of Montana graduate, worked for newspapers in Idaho for three years before joining the Journal. He left in late 2006 to become managing editor of a media company here at which he oversaw all editorial operations for two monthly magazines, Inland Business Catalyst and Prime.

He left that post in January 2009 and started a company named Parish Media LLC, through which he has been providing writing and editing services to businesses and publications in the Northwest.

"Linn is an excellent journalist whose familiarity with the Journal's focus and readers, and the business community here in general, make him a great addition to our staff. I'm excited to have him back," Crompton says.