In advance of buyouts, LA Times still hiring

By all accounts the Los Angeles Times will soon execute a Tribune Publishing-wide reduction in staff by offering buyouts — assumed to be under the threat of getting laid off if you are one of those older, veteran journalists who costs more than a 20-something. That doesn't mean that hiring stops. On Monday, the Times named a new business writer, grabbing the managing editor of the LA Business Journal. The memo:

To: The Staff
From: Kimi Yoshino, Business Editor

I’m pleased to welcome James Rufus Koren (Rufus in the newsroom, James to the outside world), a banking and finance reporter for the Business section. He comes to us from the Los Angeles Business Journal, where he has been managing editor for the past year.

Previously, he was a reporter at the Business Journal, covering banking, finance, manufacturing and the local ports. He’s won a handful of awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the L.A. Press Club and others, and discovered three previously unknown local billionaires. Before the Business Journal, he spent several years at two dailies in the region: the San Bernardino Sun and the Antelope Valley Press.

He grew up in St. Louis and small-town Iowa, attended the University of Southern California and resides in Long Beach. When he's not writing, you'll find Rufus running, home brewing, backpacking or (reluctantly) watching the Angels.