LA Times names new business editor

Deputy business editor Sallie Hofmeister has been named the new business editor at the Los Angeles Times, according to an internal e-mail from editor Russ Stanton.

She replaces Davan Maharaj, who becomes managing editor.

Stanton wrote, “For the last 18 months, Sallie supervised our coverage of entertainment and technology, two of the region’s most important industries, and was responsible for some of the paper’s signature work in 2007: the Hollywood writers strike that crippled the TV industry. Sallie and her team found innovative ways to tell the story in print and online. She constantly pushed her reporters to break news on the Web, and to step back and look at the broader picture for print. That body of work is now a finalist in the breaking-news category of the Gerald Loeb Awards.

“Sallie had the unenviable task of leading our coverage of the sale of Tribune Co., a hugely stressful 17-month saga that she handled with characteristic style and grace. Amid all the tumult inside the paper, and amid the usual drama of the entertainment community, Sallie still found time to handle enterprise stories, including a groundbreaking project that detailed the finances and budget breakdown of the movie “Sahara.” The unusual presentation of graphics, photos, smaller chunks of text and Web features made it an instant hit both in print and online.

“Sallie brings a deep knowledge of business and finance to her new assignment, and an impressive Rolodex of industry leaders. Before being promoted into the editing ranks here in early 2006, Sallie was one of the top media reporters in the country, spending the better part of a decade chronicling the biggest stories of that era — the disastrous AOL/Time Warner deal, Comcast’s unsuccessful bid for Walt Disney Co. and the collapse of Adelphia Communications.

“Before joining The Times, Sallie was an editor in the business section of the New York Times. She began her journalism career as a staff writer at Venture magazine. Sallie is a 1980 graduate of Kansas State University.”