Israel to run Sunday Calendar

Deputy managing editor John Montorio is the Adam Moss of the L.A. Times -- the masthead editor in charge of the paper's feature pages, including two new sections in the works, Image (fashion and personal image) and outdoor life and recreation. Today Montorio made the first of what he called a handful of contemplated editor shifts, naming Bret Israel to honcho Sunday Calendar. Israel, once the editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, had most recently been a senior editor with responsibilites for both the daily and Sunday Calendar sections, a job being eliminated. In his new gig, Israel takes over for Kelly Scott, who is off to a Knight fellowship at Stanford.

The position of senior Calendar editor, a job I created to help us through a potentially chaotic transitional period in Features, now strikes me as a luxury this short-staffed department can no longer afford. The fact that I've made this decision, however, should in no way diminish the value of the contributions that Bret has made in this role.

Montorio and his top deputy, features editor Rick Flaste, came to L.A. in 2001 from the New York Times. They brought along Michalene Busico to re-invent the Food section and oversaw broad changes, including the remake of Sunday Calendar, the launch of Home and the demise of Southern California Living.

The full memo