Two laid off at LA Times Magazine

Los Angeles Times Magazine has laid off senior editor Jod Kafkan and assistant editor Allison Kornberg, fishbowlLA reports.

It's your wedding, too

Los Angeles Times magazine author and assistant editor Allison Kornberg wants you to be her wedding planner. She's used her blog to ask readers for suggestions:

I am letting my readers decide on Everything, including date (they already picked May), where (readers chose by the beach), my dress, my bridesmaids dresses, flowers, cakes, music, honeymoon, and the wedding list goes on and on.

So where should she go for her honeymoon?

(found via fishbowlLA)

L.A. Times Magazine back on the news side

The sad and expensive experiment of letting the business-side of the Los Angeles Times run the Sunday magazine has come to an end. Nikki Finke first reported that the magazine's editor, Annie Gilbar, a former Home Shopping Network host, had been axed, along with her $300,000 salary. She will be replaced by deputy editor Nancie Clare.

Finke lamented the move, saying the magazine will become "crappy all over again" under the Times' editorial control. LA Observed's Kevin Roderick was less fond of Gilbar's vision for L.A. coverage: "I found the magazine's view of L.A. too narrow and its personality too gushing — remember when Gilbar pronounced pessimism a bummer?"

Totally.

A new voice from behind the Orange Curtain

A new nonprofit online newsroom called the Voice of OC hopes to get off the ground by the end of the year. The website, which will model itself after the Voice of San Diego, will cover public affairs in Orange County and be edited by former Orange County Register reporter Norberto Santana Jr., the Los Angeles Times reports.

The initial funding for the site comes from the Orange County Employees Association, which kicked in $140,000. Supporters hope to raise $600,000 to cover first year expenses.

The nonprofit board for the venture includes Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine Law School and trial lawyer Tom Girardi. Former LA Times reporters Harvey Weinstein and Dan Morain also sit on the board.

Labor unions, trial lawyers and journalists are not the first things that come to mind when thinking about Orange County....

Return of the Drex

Drex Heikes, a former editor at the Los Angeles Times and now deputy managing editor at the Pulitzer-prize winning Las Vegas Sun, will return to Southern California in August to takeover as top editor of the LA Weekly, LA Observed reported today.

From the Weekly blog:

During an 18-year career at the Los Angeles Times, Heikes served as editor of the Sunday magazine--where he directed both long-form news journalism and the coverage of local arts and culture--and as foreign affairs editor in the paper's Washington bureau. He spent the fall of 2001 in New York City supervising the Times' coverage of the World Trade Center attacks.

In 2005 Heikes was offered the number-two position at the Sun and a rare opportunity to recast the traditional afternoon daily as a magazine devoted to enterprise and analysis. Two years ago he noticed that construction workers were dying at a high rate on the Las Vegas Strip. He assigned a newly hired reporter to look into the deaths and then guided the newspaper's year-long series of stories and editorials that led to the Pulitzer.

Heikes said he is eager to invigorate LA Weekly's online content and also do the kind of print journalism that requires space and time.

"Village Voice Media publishes vital newspapers because it has upheld the vision of its founding editor, Mike Lacey," Heikes said. "Mike is a reporter at heart. His mission has never wavered. First you report, and you report hard. Then you write--and you do it as a storyteller.

"Find me another vehicle for that today.

"I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled, at this chance to lead a Los Angeles newspaper in that mold," he said.

Heikes replaces Laurie Ochoa, who was parted from her job earlier this month.