Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
First the good news for the Times. I told you last week that former columnist Peter King would be rejoining the Los Angeles Times staff, and yesterday it became official. The editors pat themselves on the back in a memo below.
Now the not so good news. On the cover of the LAT Sports section yesterday, there was a cringeworthy edit gaffe. In the deck on Bill Dwyre's column "No one…" became "Know one…" Ouch. That's a copy editor in a hurry.
"Jim Healy must be spinning in his grave," quipped one of the many to send me this. No, I don't know whether the Times headline writing system has auto-correct.
Here's the in-house memo on Pete King:
From: Maharaj, Davan
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 12:51 PM
To: yyeditall
Subject: Peter King Announcement
To the staff:We’re pleased to announce that Peter H. King, long recognized as one of California’s finest reporters and writers, is returning to the Los Angeles Times and to journalism after a six-year absence.
Pete will be a general assignment reporter, covering California and the West. His initial emphasis will be the drought, adding to our award-winning work on that crucial story. He will report to senior metro editor Steve Clow.
Pete spent nearly 30 years at The Times in a variety of roles – including city editor, roving reporter and California columnist – before leaving in 2009 to work in communications for the president of the University of California.
His byline was one of The Times’ most recognized and admired. Among many highlights, he wrote an in-depth profile of L.A.’s general hospital, examined plagiarism among leading historians, anchored coverage of the 1984 Olympics and was the main writer on the space shuttle Challenger disaster.
In the 1990s, Pete wrote the twice-weekly On California column, exhibiting a distinctive voice and a unique grasp of California culture, politics and sense of place.
He won a Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors for his columns and was a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
Later, he memorably explored the lives of Muslims in Las Vegas in the anxious years after 9/11 and surveyed the ruins of New Orleans after Katrina.
Pete lives in Northern California with his wife, our own Maura Dolan, courts reporter nonpareil. They have two grown children, Mary Ellen and James.
Please join us in welcoming him back to The Times.
Davan and Marc
The managing editor tweets:
Deeply gratified by the return of Peter H. King to the LA Times. In one stroke, we reclaim a piece of our past and brighten our future.
— Marc Duvoisin (@MarcDuvoisin) June 18, 2015