John Corrigan succeeds Sallie Hofmeister as editor of the Los Angeles Times Business staff. Here's this afternoon's newsroom memo from editor Russ Stanton:

Colleagues,

John Corrigan, deputy business editor for the past two years, is being promoted to business editor, effective immediately.

He will head up an ambitious department that has a strong track record of delivering news and enterprise stories for A1, with staffers stationed in Sacramento, San Francisco, New York, Washington and China.

Over the past eight years, John has compiled an impressive body of work in the Business section. As deputy, he was in charge of the daily report and oversaw the launch of the new Sunday section, which focuses on personal finance. He was the project editor for the 2003 series "The Wal-Mart Effect," which won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. As markets editor, John directed the 2006 series "Retirement at Risk," which won first place in business writing from the Associated Press and The Times' own editorial award for explanatory journalism.

He also supervised our coverage of several major and long-running stories, including Ameriquest Mortgage Co.'s predatory lending tactics, the Enron scandal, labor strife at West Coast ports, the California supermarket strike and most recently, the nation's economic crisis. He also has formidable multimedia skills, having served as executive producer, director, cinematographer and screenwriter of the Business section video classic, "Tom Petruno Turns 50."

John joined the Business section in 2001, after being hired here two years earlier as the night city editor in the Valley, a job that also included overseeing the Valley's weekly business section. Before that, he worked as a reporter and editor at the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Daily News, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Vista Press. He also is a board member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

He has bachelor's degrees from Loyola Marymount University and California State University, Northridge.

John will report to Managing Editor Davan Maharaj.

Russ Stanton
Editor

Hofmeister was named yesterday to the new post of AME/Arts and Entertainment. After the jump, the memo on a new weekend editor too.

Colleagues:

Mary Braswell, deputy weekend editor for the past two years, is being promoted to weekend editor, effective immediately. She will report to Executive Editor John Arthur.

Mary is known across the newsroom for her strong news judgment, ready smile, dedication to teamwork and a coolness under fire developed during a decade as deputy foreign editor, when she helped manage two dozen bureaus around the world. During that period, she balanced the many demands of numerous foreign correspondents, their families, two different foreign editors and an assortment of editors, managing editors and Page 1 editors.

She has been deputy weekend editor since March 2007, helping to generate, select and edit stories for Sunday's front page, by far our
largest circulation day of the week. As deputy, Mary took charge of the weekend desk when Craig Turner was away.

In an earlier life, Mary established an improved system for sharing Los Angeles Times copy with other Tribune papers and coordinating its delivery. She also spent a year as executive news editor on weekends, and has worked on the foreign and metro news and copy desks. Before joining The Times, she was a news copy chief for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

Mary is a graduate of Occidental College. Her husband is Warren Wolfswinkel of the Op Ed copy desk. Their son, Will, is a third-grader whose current goal is to see Manny in a Dodger uniform for another season.

Russ Stanton
Editor