Film editor at LAT

We are pleased to announce that Tim Swanson, formerly West Coast bureau chief of Premiere and currently writing and producing an entertainment news blog for Conde Nast's Portfolio magazine, will join The Times as film editor next month. Tim is a creative, collaborative and highly skilled entertainment journalist with strong credentials in print and online, and an abiding appreciation for the art and craft of moviemaking.

Tim joined Portfolio in March, shortly after the closing of Premiere, where he started work as an editor/writer in 2002. As bureau chief, he edited Premiere's signature Power List and oversaw the magazine's front of the book, including its "Action" news section and "Notes from the Dream Factory" column. As a writer, his credits include cover stories on Will Smith (for "The Pursuit of Happyness") and Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon (for "Ocean's Twelve"), as well as a feature on the indie documentary "Murderball" and its star Mark Zupan, which led him to co-write "GIMP" for HarperCollins in 2006. He recently finished work on "A Lifestyle Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: The Entourage Book," which will be published by Pocket Books this fall.

Before joining Premiere's staff, Tim worked at Variety, where he reported on film, television, music and technology. He also wrote and edited for eV, Variety's digital entertainment magazine.

Tim received a master's degree in journalism in 2000 from the University of California at Berkeley, where (fortunately, considering his future career path) he appears to have aced Kenneth Turan's criticism course. He has a B.A. from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and studied Spanish literature at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. He lives in Los Feliz with his wife and two dogs.

Tim will oversee Calendar's film coverage, including criticism and columns, and will report to Entertainment Editor Betsy Sharkey when he begins work in September. Please join us in welcoming him to his new assignment.