John Montorio continues to tinker with his chess pieces on the features floor at the L.A. Times. Today's it's Bret Israel, the editor of Sunday Calendar, who gets some new reports and added responsibilities. He will now direct all arts coverage and the staff that provides it, including critics. Israel, formerly editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, will make some changes, Montorio writes in a staff memo that promises more personnel moves in the coming weeks:

By now, it is no secret that we're in the midst of a top-to-bottom rethinking of our entire report's content, its next qualitative improvement and how we can best achieve it....

As part of his new assignment, Bret will be undertaking a thorough reexamination of how we cover and comment on the arts. He'll be directing a report more intimately tied to the news and more watchful for that hidden aesthetic or cultural dimension embedded within major news events.

The full memo follows:

To: The Staff
From: John Montorio, Deputy Managing Editor

I am very pleased to announce a major expansion of responsibility for Bret Israel, who has been such a success as Sunday Calendar editor. While continuing to edit that weekly section, Bret also will direct our arts coverage, one of the feature report's critical core components. Effective immediately, Arts editor Lisa Fung and her staff of critics, writers and editors will report to Bret.

By now, it is no secret that we're in the midst of a top-to-bottom rethinking of our entire report's content, its next qualitative improvement and how we can best achieve it. When it comes to arts and culture, there's no one better suited to raise the bar than Bret. Anybody who reads Sunday Calendar comes away admiring its breadth, intelligence, sophistication and vibrant immediacy. All those attributes are products of Bret's broad cultural literacy, his keen intellectual curiosity and a sense of urgency honed on highly competitive news desks from here to New Jersey. Anybody who has worked with Bret in Calendar, or in his previous posts as Magazine editor, assistant National Editor or Southern California Living editor, knows how passionate he is about good writing and how encouraging he is in its pursuit.

As part of his new assignment, Bret will be undertaking a thorough reexamination of how we cover and comment on the arts. He'll be directing a report more intimately tied to the news and more watchful for that hidden aesthetic or cultural dimension embedded within major news events. Bret has an ardent interest in local arts institutions and will bring a practiced, hard-news sensibility to that aspect of our report. He'll be looking for more challenging and expansive ways to use our critical expertise, and his extensive experience will allow us to draw foreign and national writers more regularly into our coverage. I'll also be relying on Bret to help identify and recruit top-notch reporters and critics, as the situation allows.

Bret will continue to report directly to me.

This is one of the more crucial moves we'll be making over the next few weeks. I know you'll want to join me in telling Bret how delighted we all are that we found precisely the right person for the job so close to home.

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