1. Foreign Editor Mark Porubcansky is leaving the Times, and is moving to Minnesota.
2. Shelby Grad becomes Assistant Managing editor of California News
3. Ashley Dunn leaves Metro to become deputy national editor
4. Kim Murphy becomes Assistant Managing editor of National/foreign
To: yyeditall
Subject: Message from Davan Maharaj and Marc Duvoisin
To the staff:
Today we announce a reorganization involving three of our most important news departments.
These changes will advance our efforts to produce a digital report second to none, and reaffirm our commitment to first-rate accountability and enterprise journalism.
We also announce, with decidedly mixed emotions, that Foreign Editor Mark Porubcansky is leaving The Times after 16 years as a mainstay of our international coverage. More on that later.
Here are the details on the leadership changes:
Shelby Grad becomes assistant managing editor for California news.
Shelby brings many valuable qualities to this important role: a deep knowledge of our city and state, a fire for accountability journalism, a relentless work ethic and fluency in digital journalism.
He succeeds Ashley Dunn, who is moving to the national desk after three and a half years leading Metro. As deputy national editor, Ashley will help Kim Murphy run day-to-day coverage and oversee our national correspondents.
Shelby grew up in the Fairfax District and graduated from Fairfax High School. He has worked at The Times since graduating from San Jose State with a degree in journalism in 1993. He started as a reporter in the Orange County Edition, then became an editor on the city desk. He moved downtown in 2003 as morning assigning editor and helped direct the paper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of that year’s devastating Southern California wildfires.
He became Times city editor in 2004.
In the 10 years since then, Shelby has been the beating heart behind two of our core missions – local breaking news and accountability reporting.
He had a guiding hand in the coverage that exposed egregious official corruption in the city of Bell, resulting in arrests and convictions, reform legislation, a change in the city’s political leadership and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service.
He has also steered breaking news coverage of stories too numerous to list, including floods, landslides, celebrity deaths and the murderous rampage of ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner.
Shelby helped to develop the paper’s first real-time news operation, L.A. Now, and for years he has trained reporters and editors in how to cover news online, build an audience and use social media to extend the reach of our journalism.
He inherits a department ably led by Ashley since 2011.
Ashley joined The Times in 1986 as a suburban reporter in the San Gabriel Valley and moved to Metro in time to help cover the Loma Prieta earthquake, the Los Angeles riots and the Reginald Denny case. After a stint at the New York Times, he returned to our newsroom in 1998 as a technology reporter in Business and later became deputy editor of the weekly Tech Times section.
Ashley went on to lead the science team, where he brought together his skills as a wordsmith, team leader and process whiz. He was an editor on the national desk for three years before becoming AME for California news.
In the latter position, he reorganized Metro, recruited exceptional talent, and helped secure and administer Ford Foundation grants for coverage of immigration and social justice issues.
Ashley also brought a sharp mind and deft pencil to every story that crossed his desk. Among many that profited from his involvement was the remarkable narrative reconstruction of the Dorner manhunt, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
Kim Murphy becomes assistant managing editor for national/foreign.
As national editor, Kim has brought energy and purpose to one of our signature coverage areas. She’s encouraged ambitious enterprise. She’s orchestrated aggressive team coverage of big breaking stories. She’s found creative ways to serve digital readers.
So it’s a great pleasure to announce that she is taking on a bigger role at The Times, adding foreign news and the foreign staff to her responsibilities.
Kim’s credentials speak for themselves, loudly. She served with distinction as a Times national reporter and foreign correspondent, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for what the judges described as “her eloquent, wide-ranging coverage of Russia’s struggle to cope with terrorism, improve the economy and make democracy work.”
Kim joined The Times in 1983 as a general assignment reporter in Orange County. Six years later, she began the first of a string of national and foreign assignments. She covered the Pacific Northwest from Seattle. She reported on the Middle East from Cairo. She served as bureau chief in Moscow, and later in London, before returning stateside for a second tour in Seattle.
Along the way, Kim reported from the Balkans, Afghanistan and the scenes of many disasters, natural and man-made, including the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
She became national editor in June 2013.
As noted above, Kim’s promotion coincides with the departure of Mark Porubcansky, who plans to move to Minnesota with his wife, Sarah, to write a little, read a lot, plant a garden and do some teaching. He will be in the newsroom for a few more weeks.
Mark has spent 30 years in foreign news as a reporter and editor. He came to The Times in 1998 from the Associated Press, where he served in Moscow, Vienna and Hong Kong. At The Times, he was an assistant foreign editor, foreign projects editor and deputy foreign editor before taking the helm of the department two years ago.
On his watch, the foreign staff produced exceptional coverage of the Syrian civil war (a 2014 Pulitzer Prize finalist), the ascension of a new pope, the death of Nelson Mandela, sectarian slaughter in the Central African Republic, the disintegration of Iraq, the Mexican government’s struggle with the drug cartels, and many other stories. He will leave behind a newsroom full of admirers.
Please join us in supporting Shelby, Kim and Ashley in their new roles, and in wishing Mark the greatest happiness in the world thought to exist outside daily journalism.
Davan and Marc
A fire and resultant loss of oxygen when a high pressure hydraulic line was cut with a torch in a Titan missile silo near Searcy, Ark., kills 53 people, mostly civilian repairmen - 1965
United Slate, Tile & Composition Roofers, Damp & Waterproof Workers Association change name to Roofers, Waterproofers & Allied Workers - 1978
written after her home was ransacked by Harlan County sheriff J.H. Blair and his thugs during a 1931 strike - 1986
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It states that there are to be a total of 9 members on the board and there are currently 10.
It states no board member can be paid, but Mr. Meier is paid.
It states that the office of the Pfaffinger Foundation must be in the Times building on Times Mirror Square, but it is not.
It states that board members can serve a maximum of three years but I believe that most the board members have been there longer.
The foundation was to do nothing other than help Times Mirror Newspaper employees through times of financial hardship, but over the past 17 years, almost 40% of the giving has gone to charities that would have otherwise come from the Los Angeles Times income statement. It seems that foundation money has been used to improve earnings for the Los Angeles Times and the rich who own the company.
Every ex-Times Mirror employee who has been on unemployment, welfare, lost a home, a car, a family, a loved one, suffered from illness whether physical or mental should have been helped, not just for a month or two but until they could get back on their feet.
Millions and millions of dollars have been spent by the foundation for causes that were against the wishes of Frank Pfaffinger who wanted nothing but to help those suffering like the suffering he saw during the Great Depression.
It really doesn't matter whether they have used the money to help kids go to camp or help build the music center. The money was to go to the common newspaper employee who was at risk of ending up homeless, a suicide risk, or as risk of losing their family or the life they worked so hard for.
You cannot rationalize taking money from a foundation that was setup to help financially challenged newspaper employees to be used for a music center. It is wrong no matter how you look at it. And it continues today because 40% of the foundations giving is still going to non-employee giving.
Any board member who says otherwise is either naïve, without knowledge, simply uncaring or doing what a higher company power is telling them to do and say.
There are thousands who do not read this blog who may be living on the street. The Pfaffinger Foundation should be in constant contact with EVERY ex Times Mirror employee to ensure their health and wellbeing. But their desire to pretend the need is gone and therefore, they must use the money for something. Problem is the need is not gone. The needy are out there and need to be found and helped. Not just for Cobra. Not just for medical bills. Not just for financial counciling. But for keeping food in every ex-Times Mirror employee's cupboard and a roof over their head. At least until their retirement provides them support.
This was Frank Pfaffinger's wishes. It was not his wishes to have the son of his best friend use the money for frivolous ventures supporting arts that were enjoyed mainly by the rich in Los Angeles.
The board members should include ex employees who are not executives who want to enhance their resumes but ex employees who will ensure that those in need receive it for as long as it is needed.
Look past the rhetoric. The foundation has about $3 million of income every year from investments. Administration costs are almost 25%. So for every dollar they get, a quarter goes to paying for staff, cars, supplies, bonuses and other.
Why can't they put together a database that includes everyone from Times Mirror and then those who are eligible for Pfaffinger support? Because they need to keep focused on adjusting their giving guidelines to ensure they have money to use for their pet charities. Why can't we send out a mailer to EVERYONE who is eligible and make sure they are all okay? Not living on the street, living in poverty or have an illness that disables them?
Yes, the Pfaffinger Foundation has done a lot of good, but don't be fooled. They are not doing what they are supposed to do.