Monday, February 12, 2007

Los Angeles Times Names New General Manager and Editor of Hoy

News Release

Los Angeles Times Names New General Manager and Editor of Hoy-LA and Vice President for Audience Development

Deepens Commitment to Diverse Communities in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, February 12, 2007 – The Los Angeles Times Media Group announced today that Javier J. Aldape has been named General Manager and Editor for Hoy-Los Angeles, and Vice President, Audience Development to help lead new initiatives to serve the many diverse communities in Los Angeles. Aldape will report directly to Times Publisher and CEO, David Hiller.

"Javier has had a central role in building Hoy since its launch, and he is the right leader to take our efforts forward in Los Angeles,” said Hiller. “Javier is a talented editor of both Spanish and English journalism, as well as an innovative business leader with a keen eye for identifying the changing needs of readers and advertisers. He’s a great addition to our senior management team."

With these moves, Hoy becomes an integral part of the Los Angeles Times Media Group. “Serving our vast and diverse communities in Los Angeles is a top priority,” said Hiller, “and Hoy is going to be the best choice for people in our communities who want to get their news and information in Spanish.”

As General Manager and Editor of Hoy, Javier will be responsible for the entire daily print and online operation, with copies distributed free in 92 ZIP codes with significant Spanish-speaking communities, and a cumulative readership of over 600,000 each week. Hoy works in concert with Hoy Fin de Semana, a wider distribution weekend product that focuses on shopping and fashion, TV and movies, celebrities, sports, advertising inserts, and travel.

As Vice President for Audience Development, Javier will also work closely with Editor Jim O’Shea, and colleagues in other departments across the Times, in helping to identify other opportunities to grow audience and readership among the richly diverse communities in Los Angeles, across all of the Times products and services.

Aldape, 35, has been with Hoy since 2005 where he was Editor and VP/Product and Audience Development. Prior to joining Hoy, Aldape was publisher of Diario La Estrella, a Spanish-language newspaper published by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He also served on the Star-Telegram’s editorial board, and for the last two years was a vice president at the newspaper. From 1996 to 1998, Aldape was managing editor for EL TELÉGRAFO, a leading daily newspaper in Ecuador. A native of Texas, Aldape earned a bachelor’s degree in history, art history and Latin American studies from Southern Methodist University. SMU awarded him the Emerging Leader Award for young alumni in 2005. He also did graduate coursework in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Recently, he was named by both HISPANIC Magazine and PODER Magazine as one of the nation’s most influential Hispanics. He has been a “20 under 40” honoree and guest editor of Presstime magazine, and chaired the Newspaper Association of America’s New Readers and Revenue Advisory Committee.

“The media needs of Southern Californians are more diverse than anywhere else in the world. We will continue to make changes to our portfolio of businesses to reflect how readers, users and advertisers are using media today,” concluded Hiller. “It’s all about us being an even bigger part of the community, and the community being a bigger part of us.”

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