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Gene Warnick, the sports editor at the Daily News, will expand his duties to oversee sports across the Los Angeles News Group papers. His appointment follows the promotion last week of Daily News opinion editor Mariel Garza to a similar LANG-wide role. Also announced by Michael Anastasi, the group's new vice president and executive editor, is that LANG will fill four reporters jobs in sports, including Lakers and UCLA beat writers and an enterprise reporter.
The memo from Anastasi:
Colleagues, I am pleased to announce the immediate appointment of Gene Warnick as Sports Editor of the Los Angeles News Group.
This move is the second in our ongoing reorganization process, and I am excited to have Gene join Mariel Garza — announced last week as our Opinion Editor — as a member of our senior management team.Sports is a critically important area for our organization, our digital future and, most importantly, for our readers. L.A. is a nexus of excellence in sports. So, too, must be our coverage.
Gene brings the right mix of experience. The California Newspapers Publishers Association has recognized his section as the state’s best in its class the past two years and the sports staff has won several APSE awards under his leadership. Named Metro sports editor last fall, Gene joined the Daily News in 2005 and became sports editor in 2006. He began his journalism career while a student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and previously was sports editor in Watertown, N.Y., and Yakima, Wash.
Gene, who will report to me, will be moving forward with a plan to unify our sports journalists under a single leadership team. Among his assistants will be one editor who oversees and coordinates our prep coverage LANG-wide.
With Gene’s appointment, and other recent personnel moves, we are launching a search for four positions in Sports:
A Lakers beat writer. This is a needle-moving job on what arguably is the nation’s premier sports beat. We’ll be looking for a reporter who has demonstrably mastered all digital reporting tools, knows how to break news and own a beat.
A UCLA beat writer. Another mission-critical position. Requirements? See above.
A sports enterprise writer. This is a journalist who is expert in multi-platform reporting, has an intimate understanding of all SoCal sports, sees the big picture, can conceive of and develop unique content, and is an excellent writer who can routinely turn pieces for A-1 and home page consideration.
A digital sports director whose job it is, under Gene’s direction, to leverage our content for maximum effect across all digital platforms.
I suspect we’ll be hiring a Lakers writer from the outside. I encourage internal applications for the other jobs. I think we have that talent already. Feel free to reach out to Gene if interested.
Like Mariel, Gene will be based in West Covina and, like many of us, will be a regular presence in all LANG newsrooms. We already know how important sports coverage is to our readers. Under Gene’s leadership, it is key to driving audience growth.
Congratulations, Gene!
—Mike
Headline typo fixed
