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Mark Medina has been overseeing the Lakers blog at LATimes.com, one of the site's biggest draws, for the last couple of years. He came through the Times' Metpro minority internship program. He will now be covering the Lakers as a best writer and multimedia reporter for the Los Angeles News Group and its papers. "This will undoubtedly be an exciting season for Lakers fans considering the additions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this summer, and now we've made our own big acquisition in Mark," sports editor Gene Warnick says in the memo put today.
Gene Warnick Sports Editor Los Angeles News GroupALL,
I am pleased to announce the hiring of Mark Medina from the Los Angeles Times to fill our opening for a beat writer/multimedia reporter to cover the Lakers.
Mark has been in charge of the Times' Lakers' blog, the most popular on their sports website, since January of 2010, often exceeding 2 million page views per month. He took over from the well-known Kamenetzky brothers, now at ESPNLosAngeles.com, and exceeded even their best monthly totals.
Executive editor Michael Anastasi has frequently talked about doing more than thinking Digital First, but living it. That's what Mark has been doing for the past couple of seasons on the Lakers beat.
He's often making phone calls by 7:30 a.m., at the arena on game day by 4 p.m. and still at work until after midnight, posting videos online. He was sometimes going up against the Times' own beat writers when trying to break a story, as he did this summer when he was the first to report Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was going to be honored with a statue outside Staples Center.
Mark will not be alone on the Lakers beat. He'll have a great mentor in his predecessor, Elliott Teaford, and we'll also have columnists Vincent Bonsignore and Jill Painter out there for nearly every home game, as well as help from other staffers. This will undoubtedly be an exciting season for Lakers fans considering the additions of Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this summer, and now we've made our own big acquisition in Mark.
Mark previously completed the Metpro program at the Times, including rotations in sports, business and entertainment. A 2008 graduate of Syracuse University, Mark also served internships at The Washington Times, Syracuse Post-Standard and Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch.
Mark's first day with us will be Oct. 18.
Please welcome him,
Gene
Last week LANG reassigned the top editors of its papers to new roles.
