New Times Business Editor Planning Minor Changes
Media
by Claudia Peschiutta
The new business editor of the Los Angeles Times is still weeks away from reporting for work but he already knows he wants to make a few changes to the section.
Editor John Carroll and Managing Editor Dean Baquet announced last week that former Wall Street Journal editor and writer Rick Wartzman would replace Bill Sing, who has held the post for the past six years. Rumors about a search for his replacement had been circulating for weeks and were first reported in the Business Journal.
Wartzman’s appointment is the latest in a series of changes Carroll has made at the paper since moving to the Times two years ago. The changes include creation of a daily California section that includes local, regional and state news, and a revamp of the paper’s features coverage.
In business, no major overhaul is planned. “There will be some changes in beat structure and the way we try to tell a story,” Wartzman said last week.
He says he wants to improve the narrative quality of stories and emphasize core coverage areas, including entertainment and technology.
With only limited management experience, he will now oversee almost 100 staff members.
“I’m scared, sure, good scared,” he said. “A lot of the skills I have as a writer and editor and manager apply, whether you’re dealing with a smaller group or a bigger group.”
Sing, who became business editor in 1996, has been named senior editor in charge of editing and creating special editorial sections.
Wartzman, who was introduced to his new staff during a short meeting in the newsroom last week, plans to spend the summer finishing up a book he is co-authoring with the Times’ Mark Arax.
Telemundo Exec Says Aloha
Rick Blangiardi, president of Telemundo Group Inc., has left the Spanish-language broadcaster for a television job in Honolulu. While at Telemundo, Blangiardi oversaw nine Spanish-language television stations out of the company’s Glendale facility.
His departure comes just weeks after General Electric Co.-owned NBC completed its acquisition of Telemundo Communications Group Inc. Blangiardi led the integration effort during the closing of the deal, worth $2 billion in cash and $700 million in debt.
“With the restructuring of the company, the job that I signed on to do nearly three years ago really didn’t exist anymore,” he said. “I felt it was best for me to leave under those circumstances.”
Blangiardi has jumped over to media company Emmis Communications Corp., where he will serve as senior vice president and general manager of KGMB-TV and KHON-TV in Honolulu.
Ms. Goes Global
Tracy Wood, new editor in chief of Ms. Magazine, is looking to hire a world editor to oversee international coverage. The former investigations editor for the Orange County Register recently joined the feminist publication.
“Clearly the reason they want me here… is to do more and deeper investigations,” Wood said. “We want to do it on a worldwide basis.”
Ms. recently moved to L.A. from New York following a transfer in ownership to the local Feminist Majority Foundation from Liberty Media for Women LLC, a group of women investors led by magazine co-founder Gloria Steinem. Wood plans to hire a Washington bureau chief, another senior editor and researchers.
New Home For Playboy
Playboy may be leaving its longtime Beverly Hills home for Glassell Park, just outside Glendale, come September, but Hugh Hefner’s brain trust won’t be going far.
Members of Playboy Enterprises Inc.’s corporate staff and the company’s Playmate modeling agency is staying in town. Executive Vice President Richard Rosenzweig, Playboy’s communications division and Playmate Promotions/ Playboy Models Inc. were set to begin operating out of new office space at 9320 Wilshire Blvd., said company spokesman Bill Farley.
Playboy founder Hefner, who lives in nearby Holmby Hills, wanted to keep some of his staff nearby, Farley said. “He wanted us close to him, as opposed to being out (near) Glendale,” he said.
The 150 employees of Playboy Entertainment, the company’s cable television and video production arm, will remain at the Playboy building at 9242 Wilshire Blvd. until the larger, Glassell Park facility is ready.
Marconi Recognition
Four L.A. radio personalities and three local stations have been nominated for the National Association of Broadcasters’ prestigious Marconi Radio Awards. Named after Nobel Prize winner Gugliemo Marconi, the awards recognize excellence in radio.
“(The Marconis) are really a pretty big deal,” said Mary Beth Garber, president of the Southern California Broadcasters Association. “It’s kind of like the Emmys or the Academy Awards. It’s an acknowledgment by your peers.”
KOST-FM (103.5) is up for the major market station of the year award. Hip-hop outlet KPWR-FM (105.9) is nominated in the contemporary hits radio station of the year category and Christian music player KFSH-FM is in the running for a religious station of the year award.
The three locals up for major market personality of the year: Big Boy of hip-hop outlet KPWR-FM (105.9), Larry Elder of talk station KABC-AM (790), and Jim Ladd of classic rocker KLOS-FM (95.5). Dick Clark is among the nominees for network syndicated personality of the year.
Members of the NAB’s award selection committee will choose the winners, who will be announced on Sept. 14.
In Other News…
KNBC-TV (Channel 4) has named John Stehlin the station’s weekend weathercaster, scaling down Paul Johnson’s duties to weekday weather and traffic reports. Stehlin comes to KNBC from KYW-TV, a CBS owned-and-operated station in Philadelphia… Local marketing firm Cimarron Group once again has been chosen to promote “Disney On Ice.” The latest show, “Princess Classics,” was set to premiere in September and will tour the U.S. for two years… Cerrell Associates Inc. was chosen to produce this year’s PRism Awards ceremony, which will be held Nov. 7 at the St. Regis Los Angeles Hotel and Spa. The show, put on by the L.A. chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, highlights the best work of local PR agencies in several categories, including crisis communications, healthcare and public service.
Staff reporter Claudia Peschiutta can be reached at (323) 549-5225 ext. 229, or at
[email protected].
