Finke: Weinraub leaving NYT

Bernard Weinraub has told his editors and the L.A. bureau of the New York Times that he'll retire from the paper at the end of the year, Nikki Finke reports on the LA Weekly website. He began at the paper as a copy boy and worked in overseas bureaus and as the White House correspondent before moving to L.A. in 1991 to cover Hollywood. In recent years he's been criticized for being too close to the show business types he covers, in part because he is married to studio exec Amy Pascal (his beat changed after they married in 1997). But Times' editor Bill Keller told Finke: "Bernie is now enshrined in our short-term memories as the guy who pretty much invented serious newspaper coverage of Hollywood." Weinraub plans to keep writing but declined to give details.