Editor to manage website

Jamie Rowe, a copy editor and page designer for the Daily Pilot and its sister publications in Orange and Los Angeles counties, has been promoted to web editor for Los Angeles Times Community News, South, effective May 16.

Rowe, 27, will oversee the online operations for the Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and OC Now, a site that aggregates content from the community newspapers, as well as the Los Angeles Times and its media partner, OCLNN.com. Rowe will also oversee social media efforts on Facebook and Twitter, along with plans for search-engine optimization.

“Jamie has bold ideas for where she wants to take us online, and I am confident that under her leadership we will soon become a Web-first news operation that also continues to put out strong print products,” John Canalis, editor for Times Community News in Orange County, said in a written statement.

“Jamie also has an usual mix of talents that you don’t commonly find in one journalist,” he added. “She is a strong editor with a deep understanding of our communities. She is fair-minded and demands balance in every story she edits. She is a natural leader. She scrutinizes stories for accuracy. But her work also has a creative side that adds flair to our work and makes it stand out.”

Times Community News created the position to coincide with an upcoming overhaul of the three newspaper websites and OCNOW.com. The redesign is being led by TCN Web Editor Jamie Wetherbe, who will continue overseeing the community sites in Los Angeles County and advising the Orange County operation.

The new web editor position was created because of anticipated online growth of the L.A. Times’ community news operations in Los Angeles and Orange County, Canalis said.

“Our plan is to become more aggressive online,” Canalis said. “Not only will readers get better-looking sites that are far easier to navigate, readers will see stories and updates sooner than they are accustomed to and find a more comprehensive report than we are currently able to offer online.”

A launch date for the new sites has not been finalized, but readers can expect this by early summer.

Rowe, who is based in The Times Orange County newsroom in Costa Mesa, joined TCN as a copy editor in 2007. She copy edits the Daily Pilot, Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent as well as community newspapers in Glendale and Burbank. Her Friday column in the Daily Pilot, Get the Ink Out, will continue on a semi-regular basis.

Before joining TCN, Rowe worked as a part-time designer at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, as a copy editor at the Signal Tribune in Signal Hill, and as editor in chief of the Daily 49er, a newspaper at Cal State Long Beach. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from there, and lives in the South Coast Metro area.