Los Angeles Times Names Joel Sappell to New Masthead Position of Assistant Managing Editor and Executive Editor, Interactive

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5, 2005 – Joel Sappell has been appointed to the new masthead position of Assistant Managing Editor and Executive Editor, Interactive, it was announced today by Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet. The new position is designed to better align the newsroom and The Times’ website.

Sappell, who will report to Baquet and Robertson Barrett, general manager/Interactive, will oversee editorial content on latimes.com and calendarlive.com, and new interactive initiatives. The editorial staffs of latimes.com and calendarlive.com will report to him, as will the Extended News Desk and Multimedia staffs in the newsroom.

“It is a testament to the importance of the Web that we are placing one of our most creative and aggressive editors in charge of the editorial part of the site,” said Baquet. “Joel will work closely with the newsroom to create new stories and features for the Web, and to encourage all departments to regard latimes.com and our other interactive products as vital, though distinctly different, parts of The Times,” said Baquet. “It has become clear over time that latimes.com is a different animal, but one that should be guided by the same bedrock principles as the newsroom. It also is an important part of our future.”

“Joel’s twin strengths in entertainment and local news make him well-qualified to lead new online sites and services such as TheEnvelope.com, a push in entertainment coverage by the end of the year, and our extended Southern California information and services online,” said Barrett.

Since 2002, Sappell had led The Times’ business entertainment coverage as senior entertainment editor. He also edited the newspaper’s coverage of the groping allegations against Arnold Schwarzenegger. From 1997 to 2002, he was Metro projects editor. As city editor from 1994 to 1997, he directed coverage of the O.J. Simpson case, and helped oversee The Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He joined The Times in 1981 as a Metro staff writer specializing in investigative reporting.

Sappell earlier served as a business writer for the New York Daily News and a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

He was a member of a second team that won a Pulitzer Prize, that one for The Times’ coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. His other journalism awards include a George Polk Award for local reporting, American Bar Assn.’s Silver Gavel Award and California Bar Assn.’s Gold Medallion as well as two Times Mirror Journalist of the Year and three Los Angeles Times Editorial awards.

A native of Los Angeles, Sappell attended California State University, Long Beach, where he majored in journalism.

The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country and the winner of 37 Pulitzer Prizes, including two this year. The Times publishes five daily regional editions, for the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange County, Ventura County, the San Fernando Valley, and the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as a National edition. Additional information about The Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.

Contact:
Martha Goldstein
213-237-3727
martha.goldstein@latimes.com