Media

USC dean to step down, editor moves and other media notes

By Kevin Roderick | May 4, 2016 1:18 AM

ernest-wilson-2013-usc.jpgDean Ernest Wilson in 2013 USC photo by Gus Ruelas.


A transition period is coming to the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Ernest Wilson is stepping down as dean after the 2016-17 school year. He will remain on the faculty. A search committee will be formed, with some early betting that Willow Bay will move up from the journalism school to oversee all of USC Annenberg.

From the official announcement:

Dean Wilson’s expertise on the intersection of communications and public policy, which span both private and public spheres, and his voice in national debates on the impact of the convergence of communications and information technology have raised the visibility and reputation of the Annenberg School.

And in Orange County, Martin Smith is leaving as editor of Orange Coast Magazine after more than eight years to relocate to rural Granby, Colorado. He will continue teaching novel writing at Chapman University and has a new book set in SoCal coming in September. The new editor at Orange Coast is Alan Gibbons, the magazine's copy chief and formerly of the OC Register.

Also in Orange County, Register managing editor Donna Wares is leaving the paper to serve as editorial director for an online travel startup, which has not launched. She is the latest high-level departure since the Southern California News Group took over the Register. "The Register will immediately begin seeking a successor," said executive editor Frank Pine in a statement.

Also of note:

  • Journalist Julia Ioffe, who profiled Melania Trump, was hit with a barrage of antisemitic abuse. The Guardian

  • Los Angeles Magazine's Lesley Bargar Suter and Bill Esparza won the 2016 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award for food coverage in a general-interest publication. JBF

  • KCET will air and live stream a one-hour debate with the top five candidates running to replace retiring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer on Tues., May 10 at 7 p.m.

  • The latest Politico magazine is the media issue.

  • John Doe has a new book, "Under The Big Black Sun: A Personal History Of L.A. Punk," and spoke with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" along with Exene Cervenka and Dave Alvin. NPR | Book excerpt

  • Michael Kessler, a freelancer for Los Angeles magazine, KCRW and others, is going to Michigan for a year to look at media and police bias in missing-persons cases on a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship.

  • Ted Habte-Gabr, founder of Live Talks LA, "is a man of immense intelligence, driven by a deep sense of curiosity." Hommily

  • Former LA Times books editor David Ulin had a Sunday Review piece in the New York Times on how Los Angeles is becoming a warmer, fuzzier place because of the rail lines. NYT

  • California Sunday magazine has posted a profile of Jake Phelps, "the brilliant, self-destructive, unreconstructed, and cranky 53-year-old editor-in-chief of Thrasher magazine, the Bible of the skateboard world." California Sunday

  • LA Times catches up on the financial situation facing the Rafu Shimpo newspaper. LAT

  • Inside the opinion manufacturing machine of Business Insider, unhappily. Medium

  • Boston Globe announces buyouts, again: "The Globe’s numbers aren’t as good as our words (or photos, videos, and graphics). So we need to take down costs across the company." Poynter

  • Want to Know What Facebook Really Thinks of Journalists? Here's What Happened When It Hired Some. Gizmodo

  • Why Sree Sreenivasan is boycotting all-male conference panels. Poynter

  • bioGraphic is a new "multimedia magazine powered by the California Academy of Sciences [in San Francisco] created to showcase both the wonder of nature and the most promising approaches to sustaining life on Earth." About page

  • Freelancer and retired NBC 4 correspondent Doug Kriegel was elected to the Encino Neighborhood Council.

  • A "lost" episode of "California's Gold with Huell Howser" will air on KCET at 7 p.m. on Monday, May 9 with an encore at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10. NBC 4

  • AP photographer Nick Ut will receive the Los Angeles Press Club's Joseph M. Quinn Award for Lifetime Achievement on June 26 at the Millennium Biltmore.

  • New book on the way from former LA Times sports writer Bill Christine: "Bill Hartack: The Bittersweet Life of a Hall of Fame Jockey," in September from McFarland.

  • Jim Herron Zamora, a former Los Angeles Times reporter and spokesman in Sacramento for the SEIU union, died last week after a stroke and a serious infection. He was 57. Sacto Bee

And some media people tweets




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