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CNN has hired the longtime Variety TV critic and columnist Brian Lowry to cover media as a senior writer in the Los Angeles bureau. He joins Dylan Byers on the media beat from LA. Lowry, also formerly with the LA Times, will cover streaming, TV and film for CNN, says Deadline.
Variety last week also lost chief film critic Justin Chang to the Los Angeles Times, where he will be a film critic. Chang, a film critic for Variety since 2010, is chair of the National Society of Film Critics and secretary of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
But as I reported last month, former Variety staffer Michael Schneider is heading from TV Guide to the Penkse media empire as editor in chief of Indiewire, "where I'll be overseeing the expansion of our TV presence," he says in an email this week. He will also be an editor-at-large for Variety.
I've been saving up some other media moves to pass along:
- Ravi Somaiya, a media reporter for The New York Times, is leaving to join the newsmagazine “Vice on HBO.”
- Al Jazeera America went off the air for good last night.
- The Eephus is a new online magazine, in partnership with the Los Angeles Review of Books, "to bring smart, fun, long-form writing to the world of sports." Justin Hargett is publisher and editor-in-chief.
- PrimeMind is a new LA-based online publication "anchored by journalism and storytelling that explores the human mind." Sophia Kercher is the editor.
- Natalie Kitroeff, a higher education reporter for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, has jumped to the Los Angeles Times as the Business section's California economy reporter.
- Jeffrey S. Klein, a former Los Angeles Times executive and the co-founder of 101communications, has joined the CALmatters Board of Directors.
- Juan Devis, senior vice president of content development and original productions at KCETLink, was appointed to the California Arts Council by state Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León.
- Tina Daunt is now covering politics and Hollywood for The Hill.
- Adrian Glick Kudler has taken on new duties as Curbed's first West Coast features editor.
- Ari Bloomekatz is now managing editor of Tikkun, the progressive, interfaith magazine in Berkeley that was founded by Rabbi Michael Lerner.
- Former LA Times reporter Mike Boehm has joined MFour Mobile Research in Irvine as director of communications.
- SPJ LA's annual banquet on Thursday night at the Omni Hotel downtown will honor LA Radio's Don Barrett, journalism professor Kathleen Neumeyer, and distinguished journalist award winners Steve Loeper, West Coast entertainment editor at the Associated Press; Frank Suraci, city editor of the Daily Breeze; Frank Mottek, business news anchor at KNX; David Ono, co-anchor for ABC7 Eyewitness News; and Adrian Glick Kudler of Curbed.
- Facebook's war on fake news sites that exist to produce very clickable, but completely false, news stories to get people to click through to sites with ads. BuzzFeed
- Pacific Standard magazine redesigned in print and online.
- Sixty finalists have been named for the Peabody Awards.
- SportsNet LA announced a four-part miniseries offering a comprehensive look at the life of former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.
- Sometime LA Observed contributor Ron Rapoport has sold a new book, "Ernie Banks: A Life," to Hachette Books. Here was his original 2015 piece on Banks for LA Observed.
- Journalist Ed Humes' latest book, out this week, is "Door to Door: The Magnificent, Maddening, Mysterious World of Transportation."
- Liberty Hill's annual Upton Sinclair Dinner on April 19 at the Beverly Hilton will honor artist Robbie Conal and philanthropist Benjamin Goldhirsh, among others.
- Betty Lukas, the first female news editor of the LA Times editorial pages, died in her Palos Verdes Estates home on March 25, at age 91. Legacy.com
- George Goldey, a former publicist and talent agent in Hollywood, died March 31 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He was 63. THR
