Times to Unveil Revamp of Its Features Sections

Starting Sunday, the Los Angeles Times will introduce redesigned features sections that the paper said would “capture the worlds of entertainment, culture and lifestyle in a voice that’s expressly for Southern California.”

The changes will include several new columns, features and listings, as well as improved coverage of health and food. The Calendar section will be expanded, and the Southern California Living section will no longer be published.

All aspects of The Times’ features report have been reinvented, said Times Publisher John Puerner.

The sections will be more readable, better organized and more visually dramatic, all part of a newsroom initiative to provide readers with enhanced coverage of culture and entertainment, he said.

“The goal was to position these sections in a way that will best serve our readers and the paper for the long term,” Puerner said. The changes are expected to increase the paper’s “appeal to women and young readers, while at the same time positioning The Times to be the nation’s best single source of news and features on popular entertainment,” he said.

John Carroll, the newspaper’s editor, added, “The new features report is not just about a change in format and content.... It’s also about the voice in which we communicate with our readers.”

The new features sections will be directly overseen by John Montorio, deputy managing editor.

Sunday Calendar, a tabloid since 1960, will return to a full-page format in two parts. The section will continue to be devoted to the classical arts, movies, television, music and pop culture, with expanded coverage of “the style and culture of Los Angeles, the nation and the world,” The Times said.

Specific new features will include: Page Three, a compendium of short arts and entertainment features; Back Story, a behind-the-scenes story of the business of Hollywood; Connections, a column by Times staff writer Reed Johnson that pulls together the “big picture of popular culture and the arts”; Social Climes, snapshots from L.A.’s social scene; the Guide, new arts and entertainment listings with more analysis and critics’ comments; and Media Matters, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David Shaw’s comments on the world of media and information.

The new daily Calendar section, debuting Monday, will continue to provide readers with arts and entertainment reporting as well as literary and media coverage with a “fashion, living and design” style report, The Times said.

New columns by Times staff writers and features in the daily Calendar section will include Calendar’s Calendar, a selective entertainment guide; New York, N.Y., a weekly column by Geraldine Baum; and L.A.-centric, an essay column by Mary McNamara.

A redesigned weekly entertainment information guide, Calendar Weekend, will be unveiled Oct. 17. A new Health section will debut Monday with expanded coverage of fitness and wellness. And on Oct. 16, a revamped Food section will be introduced.

In 2003, The Times plans to launch weekly feature sections on the home, fashion and outdoors.