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San Jose Mercury News business and technology reporter Vindu Goel is returning to the New York Times, where he once interned as a young cub reporter, to be the new deputy technology editor. The Michigan and Harvard alum likes fine wine and long walks in the woods. The Times is hoping to boost its technology coverage, while the Merc loses yet another veteran from a once-esteemed tech-reporting staff.

Goel's Facebook buddy and comrade on the tech desk Dean Takahashi signed with VentureBeat just last month. VentureBeat is run by, you guessed it, another former Merc techie, Matt Marshall. Goel should be happy he's getting out while the getting is good: MediaNews Group, the Denver newspaper group which bought the Merc last year, is dumping editorial staff at all its papers through layoffs and buyouts.