New roles for two latimes.com editors

From a memo to staff from David Lauter, editor of the California section, and Aaron Curtiss, deputy innovation editor, announcing new jobs for two editors at the online edition:

Two editors – Laura Nott and Mary MacVean – are starting new assignments as part of Metro’s ongoing migration online.

Laura, who was working part-time as the web deputy for Orange County, has returned to full-time status and will add California to her portfolio, specializing in making the article level of our stories really pop. As Meredith Artley is fond of saying, every story is the home page – meaning that for most people, the story is the way into latimes.com. When we add links and related stories and various doodads to stories, people stay longer and do more. Both are good things.

Laura will work with assignment editors and reporters to figure out which of the aforementioned links, stories and doodads will work best and then make sure they get built. Initially, she’ll be doing much of the work herself, but she will also consult with editors and train them to do more of it themselves. She’ll be based in Orange County, but will work closely with Mary and another Metro web deputy that we have yet to assign.

Laura is the former copy desk chief in Orange County. She joined The Times in 1989 on the O.C. copy desk, was promoted to news editor in 1991 and to senior news editor in 1993, laying out A1 during the county's bankruptcy crisis. Laura also worked as a news editor on the old Washington edition.

Mary, who has a deep interest in schools, has spent the past couple of months working on the challenge of creating the best, liveliest, most useful education site in California, working with Beth Shuster and our talented staff of education writers as well as parents, teachers and other readers across the region. With this announcement, we're making that work official.

Few topics engage readers more than solid, intelligent, useful information about the schools their children, grandchildren and neighbors attend. One of our top priorities for the year is to expand our education presence on line, building on the coverage we offer in print, but going beyond it to take advantage of the way the web allows us to engage smart, committed readers.

Since starting out in the news business, Mary has worked for the Middlesex News in Massachusetts, the AP, where she was the national editor for AMs, and The Moscow Times before coming here in 2001. She started on our copy desk, then joined the Metro desk in 2005. Since last summer, Mary has been Metro's web deputy, getting our web efforts up and running each morning. Now, she's taking on a project of her own in an area that is crucial to expanding our readership.