LA Times hires Koren as banking/finance reporter

James Rufus Koren has been hired as the banking and finance reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

For the past year, Koren had been the managing editor of the Los Angeles Business Journal, where he oversaw a staff of five reporters covering banking, finance, retail, entertainment, energy and other industries.

He also planned and coordinated several of the Business Journal’s special sections, including quarterly banking and finance reports, and he assisted with the production of the paper’s biggest reporting project, its listing of the 50 Wealthiest Angelenos.

Koren had been with the Business Journal since 2011, spending 18 months as its port and manufacturing reporter and 20 months as its banking and finance reporter.

Koren, a 2006 graduate of the University of Southern California, also worked at the Antelope Valley Press and the The Sun/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in San Bernardino, Calif.