Corrigan leaving LA Times for WSJ

John Corrigan, a former business editor and current assistant managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, is leaving the paper for a job as an editor with the Wall Street Journal.

Times editor and publisher Davan Maharaj, in a note to the staff, wrote, “We’re really going to miss John, whose last day is Friday, June 24. Please join me in wishing him the best in his next assignment.”

Corrigan has worked at The Times since 1999, serving as business editor from 2009 to June 2012. He greatly expanded the business section’s online presence, adding daily video reports and building up its Tech Now and Money & Co. blogs. Corrigan directed several of The Times’ most ambitious projects, including stories that won Loeb Awards in 2010 and 2012.

He has also overseen coverage of major news stories including the Enron scandal, the West Coast ports shutdown and the Toyota recall for sudden acceleration problems. He was project editor for the 2003 series “The Wal-Mart Effect,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

Corrigan started his career as a City Hall reporter for the Vista Press, and a year later became a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News. He worked his way up to city editor, helping shape the paper’s coverage of events including the videotaped police beating of Rodney King, the 1992 riots, the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the O.J. Simpson trial.

In 1996, Corrigan decided to specialize in business news. He became managing editor of the Los Angeles Business Journal, and later moved to the Orange County Register, where he oversaw the daily business report.

For the past three years, he has been a preliminary judge for the Loeb Awards, and he is a former board member of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.

Corrigan has a bachelor’s degree in communication and fine arts from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He earned a second bachelor’s degree in journalism from Cal State Northridge.