Times shakes up cityside

To: The Staff
From: Janet Clayton, Assistant Managing Editor

Sam Enriquez, City Editor for the past two years and a key Metro editor for several more, will take on a new assignment for the section. Sam will edit the California Narrative Team, a group of several Los Angeles-based general assignment reporters who will focus on the art of storytelling. After launching the Metro narrative team, Sam will join the Foreign staff sometime next year. Considering the fires, police beatings and other Southern California disasters he's faced, Sam is more than prepared to take whatever the rest of world throws at him.

Before being named City Editor, Sam was assistant city editor from 1998 to 2002. He was deputy city editor, assistant city editor and a reporter in the Valley Edition. A Los Angeles native, he received his degree in economics from Cal State Dominguez Hills. Sam will launch the Narrative team when he returns from vacation Sept. 20.

Shelby Grad, morning assignment editor, will become City Editor, directing and coordinating coverage of daily breaking news. Shelby came to the desk in 2003 after working as a reporter and editor in the Orange County edition for several years. Shelby also worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Daily Breeze, and the Peninsula Times Tribune. He received his journalism degree from San Jose State. Shelby, another Los Angeles native, possesses deep knowledge of Southern California and has played a vital role in Times coverage of every major local story of the past few years.

Carlos Lozano, Ventura edition editor, will become the morning assignment editor. Carlos has managed the Ventura staff since 2000. He came to The Times in 1987 as a METPRO. For 10 years he was a reporter in Los Angeles and Orange and Ventura counties, covering cops, courts, education, county government and politics. In the short-term, Carlos will continue to help manage Ventura. He is a native of Houston and received his degree in English from Southwest Texas State University.

David Lauter has been named California Deputy Editor/Daily and Sue Horton has been named California Deputy Editor/Enterprise. David will oversee Metro daily coverage and Sue will oversee projects and planning for narrative, investigative and weekend stories. David and Sue will report to me.

David is already familiar to all of you. David has been a key Metro editor for several years, with assignments as deputy and specialist editor. Last year he ran the coverage of the recall election and helped oversee our award-winning wildfire coverage. Before he joined this section, David was a Times national correspondent based in Washington. He also worked as bureau chief, editor and reporter at the National Law Journal. A native of Hanover, New Hampshire, he received his degree in history from Yale University.

Sue, Sunday Opinion editor, joined The Times in 2001. Sue was the editor of the Los Angeles Weekly from 1994 to 2000. During her tenure, the paper consistently won awards, including recognition from PEN West. While teaching journalism at USC's Annenberg School, Sue wrote the book, "The Billionaire Boys Club," which was made into an NBC miniseries. She has written for the Sunday magazine, California, Los Angeles and New West. She's done investigative reporting for 60 Minutes and has edited several well-known writers, including Harold Meyerson and Susan Faludi. Sue is a native of San Diego and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Redlands and her master's in journalism from USC.

Richard Kipling, Orange County edition editor, will become the Administrative/Development Editor for the California section, reporting to me. Jack Robinson, Orange County City Editor, will become the edition editor.

Richard will oversee the California section budget, scheduling, evaluations and development of the staff. This position is a reflection of the fact that our journalistic mission is better supported when we plan how to use our resources-people and money. Richard's experience as a manager and an editor make him well suited for this position.

Richard has run the Orange County edition since 2002. He was METPRO Director and a hiring editor for several years. From 1985-89, he was the city editor for the San Diego edition. He also worked as an editor at the San Diego Union and a writer for Congressional Quarterly. Richard, a native of Concord, Calif., earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from UC Santa Barbara.

Jack, city editor in Orange County since 2002, has been with The Times since 1997 in a variety of editing assignments in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties. He was a reporter and editor at the Riverside Press-Enterprise for several years. Jack, a native of Princeton, N.J., holds degrees from UC Berkeley, as well as from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Steve Padilla has been named State editor, in charge of reporters covering news and features throughout the state. Beth Shuster, who had been assigned to the state desk, will become the Education editor, in charge of coverage of K-12 public and private schools. Beyond the standard coverage, this beat will regularly use schools as a window into change and culture.

Steve has been running the regional bureaus for three years. As state editor, he'll work with state rover reporters currently based in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento. Steve has worked as a reporter and editor at The Times since 1987. He's held a variety of key editing jobs in the Los Angeles and Valley editions. He was a key editor in the Valley during the Northridge quake. Steve also has served as a writing coach and holds in-house writers' round table discussions regularly. A Los Angeles native, Steve received his degree in journalism and history from USC. He will start as State editor Sept. 6.

Beth has worked at The Times for 10 years, most of that time as a reporter on schools, local government and police . She was one of the reporters on the North Hollywood shootout and the Northridge quake stories. She has won awards for her coverage of education. Beth is a native of Washington, D.C., and received her degree in English literature from UC Santa Cruz.

Reporter Geoff Mohan is joining the Metro desk as the editor in charge of, for lack of a better term, "Sense of Place" team. Geoff will edit several reporters who will roam the local streets in search of the unusual, the odd, the funny, the elusive, the gritty and the small things that make the Los Angeles area so interesting. Geoff will be helped in this endeavor by Stephanie Chavez, a reporter based in Pasadena who for many years has also worked as an editor.

Geoff came to The Times in 2001 from Newsday, where he was Latin American bureau chief and an immigration reporter. Last year he was an embedded reporter covering the war in Iraq. Most recently he's been writing stories about the widening gap between the working class and middle class. A native of Staten Island, he received his degree in English literature from Cornell University and was an international journalism fellow at USC.

Stephanie worked as a reporter at the Boston Globe before she returned to The Times, where she started as an intern. She worked as a writer and editor in the Los Angeles and Valley editions for more than a decade, including during the times of the 1992 riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. She was born in Los Angeles and received her degrees in journalism and Spanish from USC.