Amy Wallace jumps to Portfolio

She has been the editor in charge of entertainment coverage for the Los Angeles Times business section since last year, after returning from Los Angeles magazine in 2004. She will become a senior writer at the new Conde Nast biz monthly that launches next year. Wallace wrote a devastating profile of Variety's Peter Bart for Los Angeles and has also written for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, the New York Times Magazine and others. "This is a big loss for us," Business Editor Russ Stanton tells the troops in the following memo.

To: The Staff From: Russ Stanton, Business Editor
I regret to report that Amy Wallace, who has served as Deputy Business Editor since October, is leaving the paper in early August to become a Senior Writer at Conde Nast Portfolio, the new monthly business magazine being launched next spring by Newhouse.

Amy has done a fabulous job overseeing our coverage of Hollywood and its convergence with technology. Suffice to say this is a big loss for us.

In her 13 years and two trips across the dance floor at The Times, Amy established herself as one of the best reporters and editors at the paper. She joined The Times in 1989 as a staff writer in the San Diego bureau from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and over the next 11 years worked in Metro and Calendar, covering state politics, higher education and the entertainment industry.

Amy left The Times in 2000 to become a senior writer at Los Angeles magazine, where she wrote a revealing profile of Peter Bart, editor in chief of Daily Variety, that was a finalist for a National Magazine Award and a Gerald Loeb Award. She also was a prolific freelancer, her work appearing in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, the Nation, the New York Times Magazine, Details, Elle and other national publications.

Amy returned to The Times for a second tour of duty in 2004, this time as a deputy entertainment editor, and moved into the bigger deputy boots when Joel Sappell departed to head up our Web effort.

We will, of course, barbecue her before she departs; details to come.
Her last day will be Friday, Aug. 4.