Who, What, Where

Summer 2007

Who, What, Where

By Leo E. Laurence, San Diego Pro Chapter

Editor, San Diego News Service

Print

The San Diego Union-Tribune is congratulating editorial columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr. and his wife on the birth of their son, Santiago.

With the unveiling of the U-T’s new Metro section, called Our Region, comes several beat changes. Leslie Branscomb, who covered San Diego County government, is now the legal affairs editor with Craig Gustafson now covering county government. Dani Dodge, the downtown San Diego reporter, is now swing editor. In addition to Balboa Park, Jen Steele now covers downtown San Diego.

Steve Schmidt, the state reporter, has taken over coverage of transportation, and the driving force behind North County education issues is now Bruce Lieberman. Sherry Saaverdra, the North County Coast education reporter, is now teaching the U-T staff about CSU and SDSU on a regular basis. That allows Lisa Petrillo to cover North Inland communities.

Chet Barfield, Indian affairs and gaming reporter, has become responsible for covering the San Diego neighborhoods. Onell Soto is now covering Indian affairs. Kelly Thornton, who has covered homeland security, terrorism and City Hall-related federal prosecutions, now adds federal agencies and courts to her duties.

Rob Crier, a features copy editor who wrote a weather column for Quest, now writes about the weather in depth for the Metro section. Ruth McKinnie Braun and Jeff Ristine are now coordinating and writing the Just Fix It public-service column. Gerry Braun’s opinions now reach every corner of the county every Wednesday and Sunday.

Margaret King, food editor, has added the Quest section to her duties and is now assistant currents editor for Food & Quest.

Dean Calbreath is the U-T’s new business columnist. His weekly column focuses on the San Diego region’s binational economy.

Les Masterson has joined the Today’s Local News team as a lifestyle reporter. She will cover Carlsbad and Vista and report to lifestyle editor Adam Ward.

Steve Breen, editorial cartoonist, has a new children’s book out. “Stick,” published by Penguin, is about a little frog that does not want any help from his mother and goes on an adventure through the American south.

Holly Neumann, an assistant night editor in Metro, left the U-T in April to join her husband, Thomas, in Connecticut. He worked in the sports department until last fall when he took a job with ESPN.com. The couple also welcomed their son, Blake, into the world at about that same time.

Paul Wallen, sports designer, has taken a position as design director at the South Florida Sentinel.

Public Affairs Books in New York is releasing “The Wrong Stuff: The Extraordinary Saga of Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught,” written by Marcus Stern, Jerry Kammer, Dean Calbreath and George Condon, Jr.  They were part of the U-T/Copley News Service team that won the Pulitzer Prize for the Cunningham stories.

Online

Our SD-SPJ chapter president, Jennifer Croshaw, has been promoted to online entertainment and communities supervisor.

SignOn welcomes Lauren Heimlich as the new online national account manager.

Kevin Sheehan, SignOn’s online hospitality account manager, and his wife Emmy have their first child. Jack Edward was born March 10.

TV

At KNSD Ch. 7/39, director Murray Williams has resigned after 33 years. He had been the supervising director and lead director of the NBC weekday “News in the Morning” for the last decade.

Claudia Contreras joined 7/39 from KGTV as the early news today producer. News reporter Nicole Ward joined the station from WOWK in Charleston, West Virginia.

Executive producer Alicia Dean joined 7/39 from KLRT in Little Rock. She is the new dayside executive producer.

Video editor Steve Marshall and his wife, Kimberly, welcomed baby Spencer on Good Friday.

7/39 photojournalist Angelos Papazis and his wife, Cindy, are the proud parents for their sixth time. Jack Henry Papazis was born on May 12th.

Radio

Over at KPBS Radio, Tom Fudge is recovering from a bicycle accident and returns to the air in June. Alison St. John and Alan Ray have been filling in for Tom during his recovery.

Andrew Phelps and Nicole Lozare were selected as Jacobs Fellows at KPBS Radio. They are experimenting with multi-media storytelling techniques thanks to a gift from Joan and Irwin Jacobs.