Former LAT reporter Ken Garcia explains in his new column in the Phil Anschutz-owned San Francisco Examiner why he left the cross-town Chronicle, where he also had been a columnist:

It was not an easy decision for me to leave — I forged strong relationships with some very talented journalists there during the past 13 years — but it was clear that the dear, old, quirky Chronicle, which I loved, has disappeared forever.

The Examiner, which has been steadily boosting its circulation, suffers from no such complications. It wants opinionated columnists, objective news AND readers. I’m here to do the best I can to help get them. The paper wants to become an indispensable part of the political and cultural landscape. It wants to be a model for new, urban newspapers. It wants to be part of The City’s future, which I find particularly appealing, since I’m not going anywhere. It wants to be the primary source of local news, and with the Chronicle’s recent announcement to its staff that it was killing its local Friday sections at the end of the year, The Examiner’s coverage will be more needed than ever.

Via Romenesko