Barrera leaving SGVN

Edward Barrera announced today he is stepping down as metro editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group (Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Whittier Daily News). I'm told he plans to return to his native New York after a well-deserved vacation in Guatemala.

Barrera and I started as editors together at SGVN, back in 2006. We'd both had our frustrations as reporters, watching our own newsrooms shrink, and hoped to do something constructive from the other side of the line. Barrera advanced from city editor to metro editor while I flailed about as politics editor for a paper too small to need one.

I left to take a reporting job in the Daily Journal's Sacramento bureau, but Barrera stuck around and helped steer the ship through some rough seas. The worst of it came in March with the announcement of another round of layoffs.

Eddie was one of the good guys. He will be missed.