Another exit from LAT's entertainment staff

John Lippman, editor of the Company Town report, is moving his family to New Hampshire to work at a small newspaper that isn't big on the web (they do have a website, it turns out) in a town that's not obsessed with Hollywood. Lippman has covered Hollywood for most of the past two decades, in two stints at the Los Angeles Times and as a columnist and reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The note to the LAT staff:

I regret to report that John Lippman, after more than three years as Company Town editor, is leaving at the end of the month. John and his wife Eve are moving to New England to raise their two young daughters in closer proximity to family. John has taken a job as an editor at the Valley News in Lebanon, New Hampshire (population 13,500).

John will be greatly missed. It’s not only his dapper dress—the bow ties, Goodwill suits and colorful suspenders—but his goofy antics. (How about the time he drank helium from a balloon and sang Happy Birthday to Gina or came into the office on Oscar day decked in white tie and tails?) More than anything, though, it’s John’s skill as an editor that will be hardest to replace. Dedicated and hard-working, John brought high standards, tough editing and a broad knowledge of the media landscape. We thank him for contributions that include reviving Company Town, after nearly a decade in mothballs, both in print and online.

We will post John’s position. Claudia will serve as interim Cotown chief upon John’s exit. We will throw him a party before he leaves, and hear this: Whoever took his partition of Groundworks coffee cups, this is your last chance to give them back!

Sallie Hofmeister

Assistant Managing Editor

Arts and Entertainment

Los Angeles Times

Claudia is Claudia Eller, the longtime Hollywood journalist. Lippman is close to Hofmeister (she brought him back to the paper in 2007) and his departure is apparently not related to any backlash against her management of LAT entertainment coverage. More than a dozen others have left voluntarily during her time and others were shown the door.

Edited post