La Guire Named Editor of Times Orange County

Lennie La Guire, deputy metropolitan editor and city editor of the Los Angeles Times, was named editor of the Times Orange County edition Wednesday as part of a series of moves designed to bolster the newspaper’s regional coverage.

La Guire, 41, succeeds William Nottingham, who was named to a newly created position of senior editor for regional editions to help coordinate news coverage among the Orange County, Valley and Ventura County editions of The Times.

In her new job, La Guire will oversee The Times’ 170-person editorial staff in Orange County.

“Lennie La Guire is one of the sharpest of a generation of new editors in American journalism,” said Times Editor Michael Parks. “La Guire is going to bring a fresh eye and journalistic courage to the Orange County edition, an edition that is integral in The Times’ service to Southern California.”

Succeeding La Guire in Los Angeles will be veteran Times columnist Bill Boyarsky, who was named The Times’ city editor. In another move, Topy Fiske, a former Times Orange County managing editor now based in Los Angeles, was named a senior editor, working with news and copy editors and officials of the production side of the newspaper. Her responsibilities will include working with editors of The Times Orange County and other regional editions.

“This is a major strengthening of The Times’ commitment to regional news coverage,” said John Arthur, managing editor for regional editions. Fiske, Nottingham and La Guire will report to Arthur.

“Lennie La Guire is a seasoned veteran of the Southern California news wars and is an extremely strong leader for Orange County,” Arthur said.

Boyarsky, 63, most recently has written “The Spin” column.

Said Parks: “Bill Boyarsky brings to the job of city editor a deep knowledge of Los Angeles and its people based on nearly 30 years of reporting. He is a leader in the newsroom and in the community, and his appointment reflects our commitment to Los Angeles.”

The changes come a week after Roger Oglesby, 49, was named as president of the Times Orange County edition with responsibility for overall strategic direction of all departments. Oglesby, a former Times editor and corporate counsel, has been editor of the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., which, like The Times, is owned by Times Mirror Co. in Los Angeles.

Oglesby, who also starts Monday, said La Guire will “provide the leadership we need to get the job done for readers here in Orange County.”

“This is a good career move for Lennie, but it will soon be clear that the real winners will be Times readers,” Oglesby said.

La Guire will be in charge of all editorial sections of the Orange County edition.

“If we’re going to meet our aggressive [circulation] growth plans, the regions are where the growth will come from,” she said. “Regional news will be the name of the game.”

Calling The Times “the connective tissue of Southern California,” La Guire said the edition will focus on “big picture” stories, showing how the news in Orange County fits into broader life in the region.

A 1979 University of Michigan music graduate, La Guire first worked at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, where she wrote about police and city hall. She worked briefly at the Orange County Register in 1985 before rejoining the Herald-Examiner. She was deputy city editor when the paper folded in November 1989.

She then joined The Times as an assistant editor of the San Gabriel Valley edition, moving downtown as night city editor in 1991. She worked her way up to city editor in January 1996, and was given the additional title of deputy metropolitan editor last November.

La Guire and her family--former Times metro news editor Russell De Vita and their daughter, Nora--live in Pasadena. La Guire said the family expects to relocate to Orange County this spring.

Nottingham, 47, will help to plan and coordinate regional news coverage and will work on new strategic initiatives. “Bill Nottingham is one of the most creative and innovative editors around,” Arthur said.

Nottingham has been editor of Times Orange County since mid-1996. He joined The Times in 1985 as a reporter in the Southeast/Long Beach section and became assistant section editor three years later. In 1989, he was named assistant city editor of the Times Orange County, where he moved up to city editor in 1993 and managing editor in 1995.

Previously, Nottingham was a staff writer for 12 years at the St. Petersburg Times. He has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from the University of South Florida.

Fiske, 56, who joined the Times Orange County edition in 1990 as managing editor for operations, has been an assistant managing editor for the San Francisco Examiner, a features writer and editor for the Chicago Tribune and a reporter and editor at smaller publications.

Boyarsky began his career as a copy boy and then reporter at the Oakland Tribune. He served as a state and national political writer for the Associated Press before joining The Times in 1970. At The Times, he wrote about local, state and national politics and served as the paper’s Los Angeles city-county bureau chief before becoming a columnist in 1989. He is the author of two books on Ronald Reagan and coauthor with his wife, Nancy, of “Backroom Politics,” an expose of corrupt local governments around the country.

The Times Orange County has a weekday circulation of 196,929 and a Sunday circulation of 270,448, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for the six-month period that ended Sept. 30.

The Times has published the daily Orange County edition since 1968. The Costa Mesa facility employs 612 people in editorial, advertising, circulation, production, press room and other departments.