We have another new Editor in town. Ron Kaye, longtime Managing Editor at the Daily News, got the top job this afternoon. Every Daily News reporter I've ever spoken to credits Kaye with establishing the paper's personality. He's also the glue that holds together a shrinking newsroom where things often have to be done on the cheap. In a 2002 profile in Los Angeles Magazine, Charles Rappleye wrote: "The blaring headlines, the biting critique, the single-sided analysis, all are extensions of Kaye's pugnacity." The piece isn't online, but I quoted from it on my blog-like Secession Watch site during the campaign by the Valley to break away from Los Angeles. (Photo is from the Daily News website.)

From today's DN release:

Kaye, who joined the Daily News in 1985 as an assistant city editor, succeeds David J. Butler who last week took over as editor and publisher of the Detroit News when the MediaNews Group bought it from the Gannett Company. MediaNews Group, the nation's seventh largest newspaper publisher, is the parent company that owns the Daily News and operates eight newspapers in the Southern California market as the Los Angeles Newspaper Group...

In announcing Kaye's appointment as editor of the Daily News, [Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Tracy] Rafter said “he was the clear and obvious choice to lead the charge to be an even stronger voice of the Valley.

"Ron’s passion for getting at the truth and finding the relevant news that impacts our reader’s lives is truly what we need at this time. He will be a dynamic partner in paving the way to what our newspaper in print and online will be in the future. I couldn’t be more pleased," said Rafter.

Kaye, 64, served as managing editor of the newspaper since 1993. He has a long career in journalism as a reporter and editor including stints at the Associated Press, Newsweek magazine, Cleveland Plain Dealer, National Enquirer and the defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

"This is the most exciting challenge of my career and comes at a time when the media is open to trying different things to serve newspaper readers and internet users better," Kaye said. "The San Fernando Valley has been my home and my passion for 20 years. Fighting to make it a better place to work, live and play has always been the mission of the Daily News and I will do my best to carry on that tradition of community service."

Steve Lambert, editor of the San Bernardino Sun, was named to take over Butler's previous duties as Vice President, News for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. The LANG properties include the Press-Telegram of Long Beach, Pasadena Star-News, Whittier Daily News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Redlands Daily Facts, Impacto USA, LA.com and Grunion Gazette.

Previous: Big news in Woodland Hills