Laura Mecoy looked at the Sacramento Bee's offer of recall to the home office and decided it wasn't for her. Instead, the paper's soon-to-be-ex Los Angeles correspondent takes a page from the many politicians she has covered:

After leading The Sacramento Bee’s coverage of Southern California for 14 years, veteran reporter Laura Mecoy today announced the formation of an “exploratory campaign” to determine the next chapter in her life.

Laura will launch her campaign with the traditional “listening tour” at local restaurants, coffeehouses, bars and anywhere else people gather.

She plans to meet with friends, sources and anyone who has an idea, suggestion, proposal, job offer or winning lottery ticket.

Shortly before Christmas, The Bee announced plans to close all its bureaus, including Los Angeles, and “recall” its out-of-town reporters.

“I saw how the recall worked out for Gov. Gray Davis and decided it’s not for me,” Laura said. “I look forward to traveling across the Los Angeles basin in search of a new calling. I know I will find great wisdom in all the wonderful people I will meet along the way.”

Local media note: Jennifer Hamm has been promoted to city editor of the Daily Journal. She had been business editor of the legal paper and previously worked at the Daily News and the L.A. Times. The memo from editor Martin Berg follows:

From: Martin Berg
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 12:50 PM
Subject: Our new city editor

Please join me in congratulating our new Los Angeles city editor, Jennifer Hamm.

Jennifer came to the Daily Journal in June 2005 to be business editor. She had been a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and the Daily News. She also lived in Europe for four years and freelanced for several publications, including the Wall Street Journal Europe.

The Daily Journal was in transition when Jennifer arrived. We were in the process of intergrating a weekly supplement into what became the Business pages. Jennifer had never managed an editorial calendar or edited a supplement. But she tackled those tasks (and there were many) with an unmatched ferocity, tenacity and humor. Under her direction, Business beats that traditionally had been starter positions at the newspaper became the staple of the front page.

We look forward to Jennifer continuing to help us meet our ambitious goals.

Meanwhile, we will move to fill the business editor position as quickly as we can. For the time being, the business staff will report to David Houston.