The Orange County Register promoted sports editor Todd Harmonson to the position of senior editor and said he would be the top newsroom editor. The former editor, Rob Curley, left the day that Digital First Media took ownership of the Register, and managing editor Donna Wares left last week. Harmonson, an alumnus of the Daily Breeze, joined the Register in 1998 and has been a reporter, copy editor, assistant sports editor, sports editor and since 2014 the assistant managing editor for sports. Says the Register:
In this role, he is responsible for the Register’s newsgathering across all platforms including websites, mobile, apps, daily and community newspapers, and monthly magazines Coast, OC Family and Southland Golf.
Harmonson also joins the senior editorial management team within Southern California News Group, where he will collaborate with other top editors to develop strategy and coordinate coverage of regional interest....“Todd is a natural leader and top-notch journalist who has already made major contributions to the Register newsroom,” said Frank Pine, executive editor at the Register and Southern California News Group. “In his new role, Todd will ensure we maintain a local focus and high standard of quality for readers, and guide us into a future that includes enhancing how we package our print and digital content.”
The SoCal News Group also promoted Tom Moore to sports editor of the whole group. He has been executive sports editor for the Los Angeles News Group, the predecessor of SCNG. And the group is looking to hire a bilingual editor to oversee its three Spanish-language weeklies - La Prensa, Excelsior and Impacto.
Also of note:
- Candidate Hillary Clinton was on "NBC 4 News Conference" Sunday with Conan Nolan said of Donald Trump, "We can't let what he says go unanswered and the kinds of insults he traffics in just be the political discourse." NBC 4
- Clinton also met with the LA Times editorial board. LAT
- Donald Trump has killed the Republican Party, says Times op-ed contributor Max Boot, a lifelong Republican and foreign policy advisor to John McCain in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012 and Marco Rubio this year. LAT
- Karlene Goller, for 20 years the newsroom counsel for the Los Angeles Times, is joining the nonprofit CalMatters as its newsroom lawyer and general counsel. She left the LAT in 2013. CalMatters
- Oaktree Capital Management, Tribune Publishing's second-largest shareholder, wants the company's board to explore a possible sale to Gannett. Chicago Tribune
- Outspoken features editor Stephanie Grimes explains why she left the Las Vegas Review Journal under its new regime and owner Sheldon Adelson. "I’m going to miss my team. They’re some of the most talented reporters in the business, but treated like scum by the company." Medium.com
- Katie Couric sees documentaries as the new journalism. LAT
- Audie Metcalf Ruyle has joined Los Angeles magazine in the newly created role of Head of Digital Strategy. "One of her first tasks will be to recruit talent for new positions in content and development," says editor in chief Mary Melton.
- Variety unveils a redesign on Tuesday.
A big toast to our awesome Variety team of editors & artists who worked so hard on our redesign, which debuts Tues.! pic.twitter.com/ltL4Pw1hKt
— Claudia Eller (@Variety_Claudia) May 7, 2016
- David Scott Silva, a former editor for Times Community News and an investigative writer for the Inland Empire Weekly, died of cancer on April 29 at his home in Riverside. He was 51.