Pulitzer Winner Hired as Times’ New Cartoonist

The Los Angeles Times announced Friday that it has hired Michael P. Ramirez, the winner of a 1994 Pulitzer Prize, as the newspaper’s editorial cartoonist.

Ramirez, who has worked for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., since 1990, will join The Times in September. He will report to Janet Clayton, editor of the editorial pages and a vice president at the paper.

“The Times has a long, distinguished history of editorial cartoonists, and Michael Ramirez fits in well with that tradition,” said Richard T. Schlosberg III, The Times’ publisher and chief executive officer. “He has the talent and style to challenge, entertain, amuse and engage our readers on a wide range of local, national and international subjects.”

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, Ramirez has received other honors, including a Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists in 1996. His work appears in more than 550 publications around the world through Copley News Service.

“Michael is a dynamic cartoonist who will make a strong contribution to our commentary pages,” Clayton said. “His tremendous talent will complement the traditional excellence of The Times.”

Ramirez’s cartoons are scheduled to appear three times a week. The editorial pages will continue to run other syndicated cartoons, including those of Paul Conrad, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who was The Times’ editorial cartoonist until he retired in 1993. Conrad’s cartoons continue to be distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

Ramirez, 36, who was born in Japan, began his career as an editorial cartoonist in 1982 at the Newport Ensign in Newport Beach, Calif. In 1989, he moved to the Daily Sun Post in San Clemente, and then to the Commercial Appeal a year later. Ramirez is a graduate of UC Irvine.