Former LA Times biz editor Stanton in line for top job?

Coverage of the departure of Los Angeles Times editor James O’Shea mentions that the paper’s former business editor Russ Stanton, who is now innovation editor, could be in line for the top job.

Thomas Mulligan and Dawn Chmielewski of the Times wrote, “There was speculation in the newsroom that John Arthur, one of the paper’s two managing editors, and Russ Stanton, the innovation editor, were candidates. Stanton couldn’t be reached and Arthur declined to comment on the succession.”

Read more here. Of the largest papers in the country, only one, the Boston Globe, is run by a former business editor, Martin Baron. However, New York Times managing editor John Geddes is the paper’s former business editor.

Most of Stanton’s 26 years in the newspaper industry have been spent in business sections. Before his current assignment, he was the Times business editor for two years, heading a staff of 65 reporters and editors who work in Los Angeles and in eight bureaus around the world.

Stanton also has served as deputy business editor, senior technology editor, and business editor of the Times Orange County edition and joined the newspaper in 1997 as an Orange County business reporter.