LA Weekly editor Drex Heikes stepping down
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Drex Heikes, who has been at the helm of the LA Weekly for just two years, will be leaving the alternative weekly Friday. Who will replace him as editor is not known.
Jim Rainey writes on The Times blog L.A. Now:
Heikes announced his departure at the Weekly’s regular staff meeting Monday morning. He told the outlet’s reporters and editors he was proud of the awards the publication had won and of a 22% readership increase in print since his arrival in 2009, along with a 36% increase in online readership. “We have a terrific staff in place,” Heikes said. “When I sit at staff meetings now, I’m the dumbest guy in the room.” Heikes came to the Weekly after Phoenix-based Village Voice Media forced out his predecessor, Laurie Ochoa, over ‘creative differences.’
After leaving the Weekly, Ochoa became founding co-editor of Slake, a literary journal based in Los Angeles that emphasizes the beauty of print and the creativity of L.A.’s writers. Heikes may not undertake such an ambitious endeavor right away -- in announcing his departure, he noted that he’d been working since he was 11. ‘I’m now at a point when I can afford to take a break, the first break of my life,’ he said, ‘and figure out what I want to do next.’
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-- Carolyn Kellogg
