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In addition to editor Katrina Dewey, whose resignation letter was posted on L.A. Observed last Friday, four other veteran staffers are about to leave the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Melissa Anderson, editor of the weekly Extra section, is headed to the Daily Breeze news/copy desk. Stefanie Knapp, managing editor of Extra, is moving to New York for a job with Lawdragon, a lawyer rating service to be launched soon by former Daily Journal managing editor Robin Davidson. Extra reporter Tina Spee is also headed for Lawdragon, and Dewey tells me that she too is talking with the startup. General assignment reporter Liz Valsamis is leaving the Journal for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where she will be in the law firm's communications department. Each of the DJ staffers emailed that their departures are unrelated to the elevation of Martin Berg, editor of the San Francisco edition for the past year, to be editor in Los Angeles.
It has been a year of turnover for the legal paper, with other departures including Davidson, Jeffrey Anderson to the LA Weekly and Gale Holland to the L.A. Times. "I'm ready for another challenge," Dewey told me. Berg will be in the L.A. office Wednesday and Thursday to meet with the staff and interview replacements. One change has already been announced: Extra will be folded into the daily paper and the staff absorbed into the newsroom. There's also talk of creating an investigative unit.
Media notes: Channel 13's Lauren Sanchez and Endeavor agent Patrick Whitesell are getting married and have the website to prove it...LAist interviewed longtime local journalist Kristine McKenna, while sister site Gothamist put questions to Gawker's Jessica Coen, formerly of L.A...David Kipen will talk about beach books Wednesday morning on "The Today Show," says CaliforniaAuthors.com...Joseph Mailander writes a new blog about neighborhood councils in Los Angeles, called A Strife of Interests...Patterico calls the Republican Senators who settled with the Dems on filibusters "turncoats" and declares in boldface type his "solemn pledge...[to] oppose John McCain for the rest of his days"...This week's L.A. Business Journal has a piece behind the pay wall about the Huffington Post...Sunday's NYT Magazine visited with Marilyn Lewis of Hamburger Hamlet and Kate Mantilini fame. At Eating L.A., Pat Saperstein gives her take on where the Hamlets fit in to L.A.'s restaurant scene.