Sewell Chan named Los Angeles Times deputy managing editor

Sewell Chan, a New York Times reporter and editor, on Monday was named a deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, where he will assume a key position in a newly minted leadership team when he joins the organization in late September.

The Times has been rebuilding since Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the paper and San Diego Union-Tribune in June for $500 million from Chicago newspaper owner Tronc. Soon-Shiong tapped veteran editor Norman Pearlstine to lead the newsroom.

Pearlstine recruited Chan, 40, who is expected to bring new energy to the group of journalists responsible for initiating coverage for The Times’ digital and video platforms as well as its print edition.

“He will play an important leadership role while making us smarter and faster,” Pearlstine said in a statement.

Chan, the son of immigrants from Hong Kong, grew up in the New York borough of Queens. He graduated from Harvard, studied politics at Oxford and worked four years as a metro reporter at the Washington Post.

In 2004, he joined the New York Times, where he distinguished himself as one of the paper’s most prolific reporters. He co-founded a local news blog, supervised a mobile app launch and helped lead a global newsroom. He has served as an international news editor for nearly three years: two years in London and, for the last 11 months, in New York.

“No publication is better equipped to tell the story of America’s future than the Los Angeles Times,” Chan said in the statement. “And no place in American journalism is as exciting right now as the Los Angeles Times … I am thrilled to be part of the revival of this essential institution.”