David Laventhol to Head Journalism Review

Former Los Angeles Times Publisher David Laventhol has been named publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, the nation’s oldest magazine of news media analysis.

Laventhol, 65, will succeed Joan Konner, who has headed the magazine since 1988, effective July 1, said officials of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Laventhol was publisher of The Times from September 1989 to Jan. 1, 1994. Until last August--when he retired after 28 years with the Times Mirror Co.--he had served as editor-at-large.

The graduate school publishes the magazine six times a year. CJR, as it is called, was founded in 1961 with a goal of improving and elevating journalism.

Known for its irreverent “Darts & Laurels” section that critiques news coverage and for such articles as “The Worst Newspaper in America,” CJR includes such features as a recent resource guide for reporters writing about managed health care.

Laventhol said the Review has helped “define and shape the national journalistic agenda.”

“I hope I can protect and enhance that heritage and make the Review even more valuable in the context of the world of rapid change that today’s journalists live in,” he said.

Editors at the magazine said Laventhol’s professional experience in both the newsroom and the publisher’s suite will benefit the Columbia Journalism Review.

“He’s one of the rare people who has reached the very peaks of both editorial and publishing,” said Marshall Loeb, former manager of Fortune and Money magazines who is now editor of the Review. “He’s one of the few who have reached the peaks on both coasts. He’s a rich font of ideas.”

Before becoming publisher of The Times, Laventhol served as publisher of Newsday, a Long Island daily newspaper published by Times Mirror. Earlier, he worked as a reporter and editor at the St. Petersburg, Fla., Times and in editing positions at the now-defunct New York Herald-Tribune and the Washington Post.

Laventhol served on the Pulitzer Prize board for nine years and was its chairman in 1993. He was also chairman of the International Press Institute from 1993 to 1995.

Current Columbia Journalism Review Publisher Konner, a former television journalist, will remain on the graduate school’s faculty, officials said.