Times Names New Valley Edition Editor

Lewis A. Leader, a veteran journalist and a native of Los Angeles, was named editor of The Times Valley Edition on Wednesday by Times Editor Michael Parks.

Leader, 51, is currently managing editor of the Toledo Blade.

“He is an excellent newsroom leader,” Parks said. “Having grown up in Los Angeles, he knows the Valley.”

Leader will begin his new job next month. He will replace Ardith Hilliard, who earlier this month was named an associate editor of The Times. She had been editor of the Valley Edition since 1997, the year that her staff led the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the North Hollywood shootout.

Reached at his Ohio home, Leader said he had been eager to return to Los Angeles.

“I grew up reading The Times. It’s a newspaper I’ve long admired and respected,” said Leader, whose father was managing editor of the B’nai B’rith Messenger in Los Angeles.

Parks said Leader, who previously held positions at the San Francisco Examiner and the Herald in Monterey, had gained a reputation for overseeing major news projects.

“They were the kind of projects that are a hallmark of the Los Angeles Times, concerning very complex, difficult issues that confront us as a society,” Parks said.

Among the projects Leader helped supervise was one that concluded that numerous workers had suffered serious health problems from working with beryllium, which is used in the production of nuclear weapons.

Leader will move here with his wife, Sandra, and 12-year-old daughter. He will oversee an editorial staff of about 80 that produces the daily Valley Edition and contributes to other sections of The Times.