Parks Succeeds Coffey as Editor of The Times

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Parks on Thursday was named editor of the Los Angeles Times, replacing Shelby Coffey III, who resigned unexpectedly.

Coffey’s departure after nine years at the newspaper’s helm precipitated several shifts in top editors at the newspaper.

Parks, who has been managing editor since May 1996, selected four managing editors to replace him in what he said is a move to give more authority to key editors across the newsroom.

Coffey, 50, who led The Times to four Pulitzer Prizes and 22 Pulitzer finalists, told a gathering of Times managers that he has no immediate plans but is retiring “happily, proudly, in mid-stride, with readership up, with new fall initiatives just launched and a new redesign on the launch pad.”

Mark H. Willes, the recently named publisher of The Times, called Coffey “a truly remarkable man and editor” and said he tried to talk Coffey out of leaving.

“This is a hole that will not be easily filled. This is a loss of major proportions,” said Willes, who is also chairman, chief executive officer and president of The Times’ parent company, Times Mirror Co. Willes added the publisher’s title Oct. 1, succeeding Richard T. Schlosberg III, who retired.

“In Michael Parks,” Willes added, “we have a brilliant editor and leader who can carry on [Coffey’s] legacy and help to create the newspaper for the 21st century.”

Parks is a “great leader, a person of character and compassion, of great good humor and clear vision,” Coffey said.

Business Plan for Each Section

Separately, The Times announced a sweeping reorganization of the newspaper’s business operations designed to give lower-level managers more authority to make decisions so that change can be accomplished more quickly--a goal that Willes has stressed.

The business planning activities of The Times are being reorganized around the editorial sections rather than around business functions, such as advertising and marketing. Each editorial section will have a designated business manager and a business plan.

Willes and Parks emphasized that the business operations will remain completely separate from the editorial operations.

“Our high journalistic standards and the integrity of everyone involved in publishing this paper allow us to discuss section planning issues with people on the business side without compromising our editorial judgment,” Parks said.

Parks, 53, becomes the ninth man to hold the editor’s job in the 116-year history of one of the nation’s largest newspapers.

“We have seasons ahead--great seasons ahead,” Parks told company managers.

“We are building a newspaper . . . that cuts through the clutter of the Information Age,” Parks said. “We have to be even more compelling. We have to create a niche in the lives of our readers.”

He added that Willes “has given us some ambitious goals,” including adding 500,000 subscribers to the slightly more than 1 million who now buy the paper every day.

Coffey, who won the editor’s job partly through a 1988 in-house essay contest detailing how each candidate would lead the newspaper to the year 2000, said he had always set the turn of the century as the outer limit of his tenure in the job.

With a new publisher in Willes, Coffey last week offered to resign, was persuaded to reconsider over the weekend and ultimately decided to leave, the two men said. Coffey said he and Willes got on well despite media rumors to the contrary.

“It’s been terrific, but it’s time to take a breather” after 30 years in journalism, Coffey said in an interview.

“My wife is an emergency room doctor and in the ER the motto is group, regroup and regroup again,” Coffey said.

Parks, a distinguished former foreign correspondent who won a Pulitzer for coverage from South Africa, will report to Willes on editorial strategy and policy and to Donald F. Wright, The Times’ recently named president and chief executive officer, on administrative issues.

Parks, who is also a senior vice president of The Times, said the reorganization of The Times’ editorial department will “put more decision-making into the hands of key editors so they can aggressively press ahead our efforts to serve readers and their needs.”

Four New Managing Editors

The four new managing editors at The Times are:

Leo Wolinsky, managing editor for news, overseeing California coverage, the Business section, Page 1 and the photo department. Wolinsky had been assistant managing editor and Metro editor.

Karen Wada, managing editor in charge of national and foreign news, special enterprise reporting projects, the Times Poll, the daily front page Column One feature, computer-assisted journalism and the newspaper’s library. Wada has been deputy managing editor.

John Lindsay, managing editor in charge of features, including The Times’ daily and Sunday Calendar sections, Calendar Weekend, Life & Style, the Sunday Los Angeles Times Magazine, TV Times and weekly sections such as Health and Real Estate. Lindsay has been executive Calendar editor and an assistant managing editor.

John Arthur, managing editor in charge of The Times’ regional editions: the daily Orange County, San Fernando Valley and Ventura editions, as well as the Washington Edition. Arthur, who has been editor of the Valley Edition, also will oversee the Sports and Travel sections.

Ardith Hilliard was named editor of the Valley Edition. Hilliard had been managing editor of the edition.

Narda Zacchino, associate editor and vice president who had overseen the regional editions, moves to a new position assisting Parks and Willes in helping the paper to connect better with its readers and listen to their needs.

Reorganization of Business Operations

In the reorganization of the business side of The Times:

Jeffrey S. Klein, now senior vice president of consumer marketing, was named to the new position of senior vice president and general manager of news. He will head business planning for all Times news sections, except weekday and Sunday Calendar, and for the marketing research department. He continues to oversee the paper’s consumer marketing division.

Janis Heaphy, who was senior vice president of advertising, becomes senior vice president for retail and national advertising sales and marketing, advertising operations and all business planning for the newspaper’s weekday and Sunday Calendar sections.

Robert G. Magnuson, now a vice president of The Times and president of the newspaper’s daily Orange County Edition, becomes a senior vice president of The Times and will take on the additional responsibilities for the editorial and business functions of the newspaper’s Ventura County and Valley editions. Magnuson also will oversee California Community News, a Times Mirror subsidiary that publishes seven daily and weekly newspapers in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Robert N. Brisco, senior vice president of marketing and new business development, was named senior vice president responsible for The Times’ classified advertising sales and marketing, and he will continue to oversee The Times’ new media ventures. He also will assume responsibility for the newspaper’s production operations in downtown Los Angeles, Orange County and the Valley.

Keating Rhoads, who has been The Times’ senior vice president of operations since 1994, will be moving to Times Mirror in a corporate position that is still being designed with responsibilities across several corporate subsidiaries.

Before becoming managing editor, Parks was deputy foreign editor after spending 15 years as a foreign correspondent for the newspaper in China, Russia, Israel and South Africa. He was awarded the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his South Africa coverage.

Parks joined The Times in 1980 as Beijing bureau chief after a 12-year career with the Baltimore Sun that included assignments in Beijing, Hong Kong, the Middle East, Moscow and Vietnam. He holds a bachelor’s degree in classical languages and English literature from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

Honors for Coffey

Coffey started his journalism career as a sports reporter for the Washington Post. He spent 17 years at the Post, serving as assistant managing editor for national news and deputy managing editor for features.

Coffey left the Post in March 1985 to become editor of U.S. News & World Report. The next year, he was named editor of the Dallas Times Herald, which then was owned by Times Mirror. He joined The Times less than a year after that when Times Mirror sold the Dallas paper.

Coffey’s honors include: Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation in 1995 in recognition of The Times’ coverage of the riots, the Northridge earthquake and the 1994 O.J. Simpson trial, and the 1995 Ida B. Wells Award for exemplary achievement in the hiring and advancement of minorities in the news media.

Coffey launched a redesign of The Times in 1989 and led the revamping of many Times sections, including Food, Real Estate, the new Calendar Weekend section, the relaunched Sunday Los Angeles Times Magazine, Metro, Sports and the expanded and specialized Business section features such as The Cutting Edge and Wall Street, California.

Of his departure, Coffey said: “I spent years in Washington, D.C., watching the little Caesars of that theater town cling, often way too long, to the perks of office. But there’s a season for everything, and mine here has ended.

“I know I’ll miss the early edition landing on the doorstep at 10 p.m. And I’ll miss the mad rush for inspiration on a hot deadline. But I’ll always cheer for The Times as it continues to grow and improve.”