Montorio to Head Features

John Montorio, associate managing editor of the New York Times in charge of the Style department, will join the Los Angeles Times in August as deputy managing editor for features.

Montorio, 53, will oversee a sharpening of the features sections, which include Calendar, Southern California Living, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Book Review, Travel, Food and Health. He will report to Managing Editor Dean Baquet.

Los Angeles Times Editor John Carroll said Montorio’s mission is to “reexamine everything. The idea is to make these sections better and to get them sharper with clearer identities.”

Montorio is an accomplished journalist who is “imaginative but also clearly grounded in high standards of fundamental journalism,” Carroll said. He is known for improving existing coverage and creating new sections. As Style editor, he introduced three new sections: Dining In/Dining Out, House & Home and Sunday Styles. He also helped create a Sunday news feature section called The City. Before that, he served as editor of the Weekend section of the New York Times, editor of Newsday’s Sunday magazine and editor of the Washington Star’s Sunday magazine.

Montorio said features sections should produce “unexpected but inevitable journalism” that ought to be held to the same standards as front-page news. “Soft news is not softheaded,” he said. “To me, it’s the most difficult and fragile kind of journalism to do. It has to be very sly, expert, authoritative, quick-witted.”

Noting the diversity of lifestyles and ethnicities in the L.A. region, Montorio said, “The challenge will be to try and find some common ground and style themes that will relate to people.”