Orange County Register biz editor to become editor of LA paper

Orange County Regsiter deputy editor Rebecca Allen sent out the following announcement on Friday evening:

Business Editor Donna Wares will be the editor of the new Los Angeles Register when it launches early next year. Donna returned to the Register in 2012, jumpstarting the paper’s standalone business section and expanding the business staff. During her first stint at the Register, she covered the police and courts beats, worked as an investigative projects reporter, and served as legal affairs editor. She has worked as national weekend editor (among other roles) at the Los Angeles Times, managing editor at Entrepreneur Media and reporter at the Miami Herald. She’s also been a book editor and writer, and is the editor of the best-selling “My California” anthology. OC Metro magazine named her one of “20 Women to Watch” this year.

Ron Sylvester will edit the weeklies that will cover Los Angeles County communities. He and Donna will work very closely together on coverage. During a 37-year journalism career, he’s had lunch with Johnny Cash and looked into the eyes of the BTK serial killer. He’s gone from the newsrooms of USA Today to the Register, writing stories as diverse as the dangers of antibiotic resistance and the Las Vegas Strip. His reporting methods have been taught in journalism schools across the country, and he’s spoken at more than a dozen national and regional journalism conferences. In April, he moved from the Las Vegas Sun to the Register as a senior general assignment reporter, before taking over as team leader in October for the San Clemente bureau. During his first assignment as an editor, no one quit. He’s have been named to go to the Los Angeles Register because Rob Curley thought his wardrobe would fit better in Hollywood than Huntington Beach. His upbringing in Missouri and Kansas has given him a unique perspective in community-based journalism. His goal for this job is to coach like Phil Jackson while looking more like Pat Riley. He reports that he’s already shopping for new shoes in the shops on Melrose.

With Donna’s transfer to LA, Dan Beucke will take over as OC Register business editor. Dan came to the Register in March after 15 years at Businessweek in New York City, where he was a senior editor handling award-winning stories for the magazine and the news editor for Businessweek.com. Before that, he was business editor of New York Newsday, a deputy editor at Newsday and the San Jose Mercury News, and a reporter at various newspapers including the Register and the Tustin News. He’s written on subjects as diverse as the crash of General Motors, income inequality, the low-tech side of Silicon Valley, and the razor-blade arms race. Dan lives in Tustin with his wife, Diane.

Donna and Ron have begun sorting the list of people who have applied and will start interviewing candidates soon. If you are interested in working in Los Angeles and haven’t applied, please do. They are also looking for a location for our LA office.