"Mexico Under Siege" wins Overseas Press Club honors

Here's the announcement to staff from Editor Russ Stanton:

Colleagues:
 
“Mexico Under Siege,” our innovative and deeply reported chronicle of the narco-violence afflicting our southern neighbor and our own border region, has collected a fresh batch of honors.
 
The Overseas Press Club of America last night bestowed its prestigious Hal Boyle Award for newspaper reporting to “Mexico Under Siege,” along with a special citation for exceptional online coverage of international affairs.
 
“Mexico” has also snared a Sigma Delta Chi Award for online reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.
 
This remarkable multimedia project, which features video, interactive graphics and a Q&A blog on which staffers have answered readers’ questions in English and Spanish, previously won the web reporting prize in the Scripps Howard National Journalism competition.
 
It’s rare to see a piece of journalism lauded for both print and online excellence, and it’s a testament to the strides we’ve made toward becoming a multi-platform newsroom. It's also  time to salute those responsible for this terrific project.
 
--Editing. Asst. California Editor Geoff Mohan has directed the series from the outset, with daily editing help from the Foreign and Metro desks.
--Reporting. Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood in our Mexico City bureau, Rich Marosi in San Diego and Sam Quinones in Los Angeles have been the primary writers of the series; at least 10 other staffers have contributed stories to the effort.
--latimes.com/Database team. Sean Connelley, Stephanie Ferrell, Michael McGehee, Katy Newton and Ben Welsh developed the outstanding interactive package.
--Photo/video. Don Bartletti has been the primary photographer on the project and Deborah Bonello handled video, with editing assistance from Alan Hagman (online) , Mary Cooney (print) and Scott Anger (video).
--Graphics. Tom Reinken, Lorena Iniguez, Raul Ranoa and Thomas Lauder produced the informational graphics for both print and online.
--Design.  Derek Simmons and Kelli Sullivan have overseen the design efforts.
--Copy desk. Our crack troops have gang-tackled this one, with Arnold Paradise leading the charge.
You can find this wonderful piece of journalism at www.latimes.com/siege.

In addition, the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Big Burn” series on wildfires won a Sigma Delta Chi Award for informational graphics. The award recognizes the hand-drawn illustrations, maps and other graphics that gave the series such a distinctive look and helped makes its wealth of detail about firefighting tactics and costs accessible to readers.
 
Congratulations to everyone.
 
Russ Stanton
Editor

Steve Padilla joins National desk as assistant editor

Here's the memo to the staff from Deputy National Editor Ashley Dunn:

Steve Padilla has joined the National desk as an assistant National editor.

Steve joined the paper 22 years ago as the night cop reporter in the Valley Edition. In three years he was named an assistant city editor and has been editing ever since. Steve is known for his skill at editing narratives, and reporters throughout the building ask him to offer guidance on their stories.

Steve was the managing editor of the Valley Edition when it spearheaded the paper’s Pulitzer-winning coverage of the botched North Hollywood bank robbery in 1997. He was part of the editing team that handled the 2000 presidential election and, as a member of the Metro desk for the past eight years, edited a variety of subjects, including higher education and religion. For nearly two years he has overseen the paper’s military obituaries and was part of the team that created the California War Dead Database. This winter he helped plan web and broadsheet coverage of Barack Obama’s inauguration and edited a special section on presidential inaugurations.

Although he admits to being a bit of a technophobe, Steve has embraced the web. He helped launch the L.A. Now and L.A. Unleashed blogs and works with Andrew Malcolm on Top of The Ticket. He even live-blogged a recent presidential press conference.

Steve is a local product, originally from Alhambra and a graduate of USC, where he was editor of the Daily Trojan. Before joining The Times, he was a reporter with the San Diego Union and an editor with Hispanic Link Weekly Report, a newsletter on Latino affairs. On the non-journalistic front, he’s a musician -- a trained tenor -- and sometimes available for weddings.

Technical difficulties and alternate ways to contact us [Updated]

Update: As of Wednesday morning, April 22, the readers' representative office has been able to receive e-mails. The address: readers.rep@latimes.com.]

 

The Readers' Rep mailbox is experiencing technical difficulties. If you send us an e-mail it may bounce back. We hope to resolve the situation soon.

In the meantime, please contact us by phone at (877) 554-4000, by fax at (213) 237-3535 or by mail to 202 W. 1st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Thank you!

David Sarno joins Business desk as technology reporter

Here is the memo sent to staff from John Corrigan, Business editor:

I’m very pleased to report that David Sarno is joining the Business staff as a technology reporter.
 
No doubt you’ve seen David’s fine work on the ever-popular tech blog and on the Calendar cover, where he wrote the weekly Web Scout column.  David will continue to be one of the mainstay contributors to the tech blog, but he’ll also aim to tell longer stories that will be of wide appeal in print as well.

Among the subjects he'll mine for news and features are the L.A. tech scene, Internet privacy and security, Twitter and the technologies that bind and divide old- and new-media companies.

David grew up surfing the waves off Hermosa Beach and has an eclectic resume, serving as associate editor with the Huffington Post, a writing intern on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and an engineering intern at Sun Microsystems.

David, who has a B.A. in computer science from Yale, and a master’s in fiction writing from the University of Iowa, will report to technology editor Chris Gaither. Please join me in giving him a warm welcome to Biz.

Reaction to the front-page ad [Updated]

Updated, 11 a.m. Friday: The number of e-mails received on the subject has exceeded 80.

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More than 30 e-mails have been received in reaction to the front-page advertisement -- written as if it were  a news story -- in  today's  Los Angeles Times. The word "advertisement" appeared under the NBC logo, but readers wrote angry  notes. In addition to e-mails, some two dozen readers have called with similar sentiments.  Here are some excerpts:

Are you kidding me? When will those who run our paper stop insulting their readers' intelligence and our commitment to its survival? Seeing that front page ad was not shocking. If you want to sell advertising on the front page -- great, do it! But trying to spin it as a story? Where are the journalistic standards?

This paper has slowly withered in size and might and insight. Great columnists are gone and the ones remaining write their columns with such fear of their own futures that I feel such empathy.

Clearly "out of the box" thinking is important to the survival of the newspaper, but creative thinking that does not harm the paper's reputation. Unfortunately, I think this ship sailed a while back.

One step closer to canceling the subscription ... and there aren't many steps left.

What a way to alienate those few remaining loyalists.

Joey Shanley

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The ongoing deterioration of a once-great newspaper reached a new low this morning. Unbelievable!

Peter F. McAndrews
Santa Monica

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I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the Times' front page on Thursday, April 9. There must have been nearly 20% of the front page dedicated to advertising! It is sad to see a fine newspaper stoop to such lows, and I hope this doesn't continue.

David Holmes
Buena Park

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I am completely outraged that the L.A. Times, formerly one of the premier newspapers of the world, would finally be brought down so low as to accept advertising on a significant portion of its front page. I hope the Tribune Co. got a ton of money for this vile  and image-destroying move -- they will need it as the Times loses still more circulation. I am not going to continue my subscription, as there appears to be less and less room for information, and more  and more for infomercials.

Suzanne Schechter
Oxnard   

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Today's issue shows just how low the L.A. Times has sunk!  A very amateurish appearing ad on the front page!  The Times has proven itself to no longer be a newspaper but a shill for whatever company pays the most. I might as well switch my subscription to the Daily News.

R. L. Giannangeli
North Hollywood
   

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Every time I think this paper can't get any worse, I'm unpleasantly surprised. The massive ad taking up valuable column space on the front page of Thursday's paper has finally convinced me to cancel my subscription. The L.A. Times has gotten so pathetic, I'm forced to get my news elsewhere.

Elizabeth Babor
La Crescenta

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I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I literally learned to read my first words from your paper.  But the great glory days are gone. It was one thing to have ads on the bottom of the front page, which are now larger than the actual headlines. But to show a faux news item ...

Susan Denley to become associate Features editor

Here's the announcement from Alice Short, assistant managing editor, Features:

After many years of helping the editors of this paper manage the editorial staff, Susan Denley is moving back into the newsroom. Susan will join the second-floor features team as associate features editor, starting April 13.

She will assist in identifying and editing potential A-1 stories, develop a greater range of lifestyle coverage, take over features’ reverse-publishing initiative and provide backup assistance to the editors of the weekly sections.

Susan will continue to coordinate staff development programs for editorial, and she will serve as a special advisor to Russ Stanton.

Before heading up Editorial Hiring and Development, Susan had a wealth of journalism experience, in hard news and features, as a reporter, editor and section head. At various times her portfolio ranged from government, politics and news investigations to debutante balls, lifestyle features and home decorating columns.

Susan joined the Times in 1988 as assistant editor of the old Westside suburban section. A year later she became deputy to the suburban editor, helping edit and manage the 100-person suburban staff as they produced six suburban sections (and, for a brief time, the Valley edition). In 1993, she was named Hiring and Development Editor.

During her tenure, H&D organized various staff development programs, launched a national award- winning student journalism program, built up the Metpro training program, and helped develop the curriculum for our comprehensive multimedia training program. Susan worked directly with six different editors of this paper on a variety of initiatives related to the development of one of the nation’s strongest news-gathering staffs.

Before coming to the Times, Susan worked for the Orange County Register, the St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Times.

Susan will report to me.

Alice Short
Assistant managing editor, Features

John Johnson to Health/Science team

Below is the memo from Health/Science Editor Tami Dennis announcing the move :

John Johnson, who has been covering space and physics on the National Desk, is joining the larger health/science team effective immediately.

John, who has been at the Times 21 years, began his career here in the former Valley edition.  He covered the porn industry and wrote the first story (with former Times’ reporter Ron Soble) pointing the finger at the Menendez brothers in their parents’ slayings. He also wrote a book about the killings that was made into a TV movie.  He later worked as city editor in the Ventura edition before becoming a state reporter, assigned to cover the Central California coast. Five years ago, he took on the space and physics beat, covering the space shuttle program, JPL and Caltech. In his recent reporting, he’s traveled to Switzerland to write about the Large Hadron Collider, Louisiana to write about gravity wave detectors and the mountains of New Mexico to write about the largest star survey in history.

 Before coming to the Times, he worked in McClatchy Newspapers’ Washington bureau (during the Reagan years) and as an environmental reporter at the Sacramento Bee.

John’s  hobbies include collecting old vinyl R-and-B records, which he says he boorishly pulls out for visitors when he’s had too much scotch. He has a son who attends law school at Notre Dame.

---Tami Dennis, Health/Science Editor