The New York Times has snared another Los Angeles journalist, but this one's not from the Times. Howard Beck, who covered the Lakers for the L.A. Daily News for seven years — from Del Harris through Dennis Rodman to the end of the Shaq era — is going east to cover the Knicks. His final story for the Daily News reported the hiring of Rudy Tomjanovich as coach. Since the DN-to-NYT route is not a well-traveled path, more on Beck: before joining the Daily News in 1997, he covered local government for the Ventura County Star and also wrote for the Davis Enterprise up north.

Separately, Laurie Pike at LA.com passes along foodie gossip that the NYT is after L.A. Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila.

* And in other moves: Variety has the NYT moving Pulitzer winner Margo Jefferson from second-string theater critic after only eight months. She'll cover the experimental arts. And Gawker has the news that Cynthia Cotts is no longer the media writer (or anything else) at the Village Voice. Adjust your links as necessary.