Michael Parks Is Named Times Managing Editor

Michael Parks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and 16-year veteran of The Times’ foreign staff, has been named the newspaper’s managing editor, Shelby Coffey III, Times editor and executive vice president, announced Wednesday.

Parks, 52, succeeds Managing Editor George J. Cotliar, who will become executive editor until his retirement in January. Cotliar, 64, has served as managing editor for 18 years. Parks will assume his new duties July 1.

Coffey also announced that Parks, Associate Editor Narda Zacchino and Senior Editor Carol Stogsdill have been named vice presidents of The Times, effective immediately.

Parks has been deputy foreign editor of The Times for the last year and for 15 years before that reported and directed coverage from China, Russia, Israel and South Africa. He won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his dispatches from South Africa in 1987 and was a Pulitzer finalist while Times bureau chief in Moscow.

Parks will be responsible for all parts of The Times’ editorial department except for the editorial pages, which will continue to report to Richard T. Schlosberg III, Times publisher and chief executive, and Coffey.

“Michael is a brilliant journalist whose experience and vision make him ideally suited for this important leadership position at The Times,” Schlosberg said in a statement. “We are fortunate to have someone of Michael’s caliber to continue the rich journalistic tradition sustained by George Cotliar for so many years.”

“Michael Parks brings a proud journalistic heritage, a keen analyst’s eye and a powerful drive to this position,” Coffey said. “He will be both a strong catalyst and a diplomatic leader for the newsroom.

“George’s 18 years as managing editor have been ones of extraordinary achievement,” Coffey added. “He has attained 39 years of exemplary work and leadership that have earned him a very important place in our newspaper’s history.”

“The promotion of Michael, Narda and Carol reflects the importance of their responsibilities and further strengthens the leadership of our editorial departments and The Times’ senior management team,” Schlosberg said.

Parks said that in his new post he hoped to “continue strengthening the values of aggressive journalism that The Times has had under George Cotliar.” Although he described himself as “independent minded,” Parks said he also hoped to “develop a strong team approach to newsroom management.”

Parks joined The Times in 1980 as Peking bureau chief after a 12-year career with the Baltimore Sun, which included assignments in Peking, Hong Kong, the Middle East, Moscow and Vietnam. He became Johannesburg bureau chief in 1984, Moscow bureau chief in 1988 and Jerusalem bureau chief in 1992. He won two Los Angeles Times editorial awards and holds a bachelor’s degree in classical languages and English literature from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

Stogsdill, 46, became senior editor of The Times in 1993 and is responsible for the newspaper’s California coverage, including daily editions for the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Fernando Valley, Ventura and Orange counties. She oversaw Times coverage of the 1994 Northridge earthquake, for which the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for local spot news reporting.

Stogsdill joined The Times in 1987 as executive news editor of the Orange County Edition. She was named executive editor of the edition in 1989 and was promoted to editor of the edition in 1990.

Zacchino, 49, is responsible for The Times’ feature coverage, including the Life & Style, Calendar, Food, Travel, Real Estate and Book Review sections and the Los Angeles Times Magazine and TV Times. She joined the newspaper in 1970 as a copy messenger, was a staff writer for seven years, an assistant city editor and Sacramento bureau chief. She was named editor of the Orange County Edition of The Times in 1983, deputy managing editor in 1989 and associate editor in 1990.

Cotliar joined The Times in 1957 as a suburban section reporter. He joined the newspaper’s Sunday department a year later as a copy editor. He worked as copy chief of Home Magazine from 1959 to 1960 and in 1961 was named special sections editor. For the next five years, he held the positions of national news editor, foreign news editor and assistant news editor.

Cotliar became assistant national editor in 1969 and from 1970 to 1972 served as editor of the Orange County Edition. He became senior assistant managing editor in 1972 and managing editor in 1978.