Eric Lidji heads to Pittsburgh; Wesley Loy moves to Petroleum News

Petroleum News reporter Eric Lidji is on his way to Pennsylvania after accepting an associate editor’s position at the Jewish Chronicle, a weekly newspaper in Pittsburgh. Former Anchorage Daily News reporter Wesley Loy is taking Lidji’s place at Anchorage-based Petroleum News.

During his year and a half at Petroleum News, Lidji covered exploration, in-state gas issues and oil company investment in Alaska.

“Eric did an excellent job for us,” Petroleum News publisher and executive editor Kay Cashman said June 3. “He’ll be missed.”

Lidji will continue working with Petroleum News on a freelance basis, she said, primarily on special publications such as The Explorers and Big Risk, Bigger Rewards magazines.

Loy, a freelance writer, worked for more than 10 years as a business reporter at the Anchorage Daily News, covering oil and gas and commercial fisheries for most of that time.

“We’re very happy to be working with Wesley. He’s not only a talented writer, but he’s very knowledgeable about the oil and gas industry in Alaska,” Cashman said.

Loy was born and raised in Tennessee, and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, as well as a master’s in Southern studies from the University of Mississippi.

Southern studies is a regional version of American studies that combines the study of history, literature, economics, art, music and the general culture of the American South.

Lidji left the weekly Petroleum News at the end of the third week in May. Loy began writing for the newspaper the following week.

—Petroleum News