New deputy biz editor at LA Times

John Corrigan has been promoted to deputy business editor at the Los Angeles Times, filling the slot being vacated by Henry Furhmann, according to a memo from biz editor Davan Maharaj.

It’s Corrigan’s second promotion in the past two months. Earlier, he was promoted from senior markets editor to senior news editor in the department.

Maharaj wrote, “In his new position, John will be involved in launching the daily business report, helping to ensure that we’re on the stories of most interest and significance to our readers. He’ll also oversee the section’s coverage of residential real estate and continue to play a role in developing projects and in coordinating cover stories for our recently improved Sunday Business section.”

Corrigan joined the business section in 2001. With a bachelor’s degree in fine and communication arts from Loyola Marymount University, he had hoped to become a screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Unable to crack the documentary business, John got hooked on reporting stories for the Daily Sundial, the student paper at Cal State Northridge, where he earned a second bachelor’s degree.

Corrigan previously worked at the Los Angeles Business Journal, the Los Angeles Daily News and the Orange County Register.

During his tenure in the LA Times’ business section, Corrigan has piled up an impressive body of work: He was project editor for the 2003 series “The Wal-Mart Effect,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, and the 2006 series “Retirement at Risk.” He has overseen coverage of several major stories, including the Enron scandal, the labor strife at West Coast ports, the California supermarket strike and abuses by mortgage lender Ameriquest.