Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Those of you who were still cozying up to Richard Fausset of the Times' third-floor bureau can scratch him off the holiday party list. He is shipping out to Atlanta on Feb. 1 to replace the bureau chief there, Ellen Barry, who is headed for New York. Also, the Times' Houston bureau chief, Scott Gold, is rotating back to Los Angeles. He'll work on Hurricane Katrina follows to begin with, then get a new assignment. They're looking for a replacement willing to "spend a good part of the next year in New Orleans." Sounds like the move was tied to his wife, Dana Calvo, getting a job as writer and story editor on "Studio 7," NBC's upcoming spoof of a late-night TV show. Calvo had previously left the Times staff. Both memos follow.
To: The Staff
From: Scott Kraft, National Editor
I'm pleased to announce that Richard Fausset, now on the City Hall beat for Metro, will be moving to Atlanta as our bureau chief. He'll take over the story-rich South beginning on Feb. 1.
As previously announced, Ellen Barry, who has had a tremendous run in Atlanta over the past two years, will carry her considerable reporting and writing skills to our New York bureau, where she begins work in January.
Richard has been at the paper since 1999, when he joined the Our Times Crenshaw edition to cover the city of Inglewood. He moved on to become city editor for the Our Times Santa Monica and, in 2000, broke onto the Metro staff as a general assignment reporter. He was part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for the wildfire coverage in 2004.
Richard is a native of New Orleans, and he has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri. His career has included stints as a copy editor at the Cape Cod Times, as a research fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, as a reporter at the weekly Gazette Newspapers in Bethesda, Md., and as editor of Flagpole Magazine in Athens, Ga.
Please join me in congratulating Richard on his new assignment.
*****************************************************************************************************
To: The Staff
From: Scott Kraft, National Editor
The National staff is looking for our next Houston bureau chief, a position that will open in early January.
Scott Gold, who has presided over the Houston bureau with exceptional energy and skill for three newsy years, is returning to Los Angeles with his wife, Dana Calvo. Dana, a frequent contributor to Business and Calendar, has accepted a job in L.A. as writer and story editor on the upcoming NBC series "Studio 7," a behind-the-scenes send-up of a fictional late-night variety show.
During his time in Houston, Scott has covered many major stories, from the space shuttle crash to Hurricane Katrina. In Los Angeles, Scott will spend several months working through additional stories from the Katrina aftermath in New Orleans. Details on his next assignment in L.A. will be worked out later.
We intend to move quickly to fill the Houston job and we'd love to hear from versatile reporters and writers interested in joining the National staff in Houston. The successful candidate will be a reporter with a great eye for a story and an ability write gracefully on a wide range of topics.
The Houston territory includes Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma, but the new Houston bureau chief can expect to spend a good part of the next year in New Orleans, covering that important national story.