SGV Tribune loses a reporter

Tania Chatila, who worked her way up the ranks to become a reporter and a sometimes editor at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, posted a note yesterday to let readers know that she has left the paper for a communications job at USC.

From her Leftovers at City Hall blog:

I've been working in professional newspapers since I was 19, but I have to say no newsroom has been quite like this one. Working in the San Gabriel Valley gave me a crash course in real crime, real politics and real people.

And now it's really time to go. This isn't to say I won't ever return to journalism (readers out there are either smiling or cringing at that thought) -- journalism and writing has always been my passion.

It's the art of storytelling that compels me. But for now, the transition is right for me and my future.

Her departure strikes me as a scary reminder that even good journalists are searching for a way station where they can wait out a storm that might never pass. It's also more evidence of the broken-ladder theory of journalism, one that should worry larger papers that hope to maintain their standards.

Coincidentally, the woman with whom Tania started the Leftovers from City Hall blog, Jennifer McLain, left the Tribune earlier this year and is now a student at USC.