Left Coast Bound   

New York Times' national editor steps into managing editor job at L.A. Times, promising more hard-edged stories.

The Los Angeles Times ' new managing editor is thinking hard news: Dean Baquet says his first priority is to increase investigative reporting and hard-edged stories on issues affecting California.
"There's a lot of potential and opportunity there," Baquet says. "I've got some learning to do, but I'm looking forward to it."
Recently anointed L.A. Times Editor John Carroll pulled off a major coup when he wooed Baquet away from his national editor post at the New York Times . Carroll had tried unsuccessfully to entice him to Baltimore, where Carroll was the Sun 's editor for nine years. "I've known him by reputation for seven or eight years," he says. "I like his grounding in the craft of reporting and his strong journalistic instincts as an editor."
Baquet, 43, will serve as the paper's sole managing editor. The appointment is a change from a previous management setup initiated by former Editor Michael Parks , who had appointed four managing editors, each with different responsibilities. Now that Baquet is the No. 2 person in the newsroom, the duties of Karen Wada and John Arthur , two other managing editors, will be "adjusted." Former Managing Editor John Lindsay left the paper earlier this year, and Leo Wolinsky , a former ME, had previously moved to the newly created position of executive editor.
"I'm very excited at this prospect," Baquet says. The Los Angeles Times "is a great paper with terrific people."
A 10-year veteran of the New York Times, Baquet landed his first reporting job at a small paper in his native New Orleans. He then joined New Orleans' Times-Picayune before going to the Chicago Tribune , where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for a series on corruption in the Chicago City Council.
Baquet leaves New York with his wife and 11-year-old son for his first time living on the left coast. "I don't know my way around at all," he says. And it's a sad goodbye in N.Y.C. "This is a wonderful paper, and it's very hard to leave," he says. "I have a lot of friends here, and I'm very sorry to go."
L.A. Times staffers interviewed about the appointment said they had heard about Baquet, but didn't know enough about him to speculate on what the move would bring.
Carroll says the hire will be the first in many changes at the Times in the coming months. As for advice for Baquet, Carroll only says, "He better bring a bathing suit."

-- Kent German