The L.A. Times has dusted off the dormant title of Metro Editor and moved veteran Steve Clow into the role as number two on local coverage. Most recently he had been in Sports, and Clow also has worked on the National desk and as the deputy in Metro before. The Metro desk is also picking up Tom Curwen in a specially created editor-writer role. Curwen, a Pulitzer finalist this year and one of the paper's most graceful writers, has been editor of the late Outdoor section and deputy editor of the Book Review. Memos follow.

To: The Staff
From: David Lauter, California Editor

Steve Clow, a gifted and careful editor, has moved back to Metro and will have broad responsibilities for helping me with oversight of this
large and complicated department. He's among the people I will turn to for running the place when I'm away and for advice and counsel on a wide variety of Metro stories, projects and personnel issues. He'll be someone I turn to regularly for editing of major stories as they
develop. And, not least, he will handle a group of reporters -- he's already taken on several.

Steve has worked in National, Metro, Features, and, most recently, Sports. He has moved back and forth among the departments several times for good reason: His is one of the first names that always comes up when department heads search for excellent, experienced editing. In each of his assignments, he has improved the work of his reporters, shepherded many a story onto page one and developed a well-deserved reputation as among the most congenial of colleagues.

Please join me in welcoming Steve back aboard.

To: The Staff
From: Davan Maharaj, Managing Editor
David Lauter, California Editor

Over the last few years, Tom Curwen has become one of The Times' most admired writers - quite a feat considering that he was a full-time
editor in Features all the while. Tom reported and wrote memorable narratives such his "Grizzly Bear" series, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, largely on his own time.

We're pleased to announce that Tom will now be writing for the paper much more frequently, and on company time. Tom is taking on a new assignment as a writer-editor in Metro. He will find and tell compelling narratives of his own. In addition, he will work with a group of Metro's writers, helping conceive and shape long-form narratives, coordinating their work and editing some of it. To borrow a sports term, he will be a player-coach.

Hybrid assignments like this one can be tough to pull off, but we're confident Tom will be able to strike the right balance. Having Tom more fully engaged in our most ambitious stories, as a writer on some and an editor on others, can only benefit the paper and its readers.

Tom's first newsroom assignment was as deputy editor of the Book Review, starting in 1997. He was the editor of the Outdoors section from 2004 to 2005. His writing has been honored by Los Angeles Press Club, the American Assn. of Sunday and Features Editors and the California
Newspaper Publishers Assn. In 2002 he was a recipient of a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism. He attended the UC
Berkeley, and has a master's degree in creative writing from the USC, where he was honored by the Academy of American Poets.

Please join us in congratulating Tom on his new assignment.