What would Los Angeles do without the Valley to provide it with stars and set designers and chefs for their TV shows -- and editors for their newspaper? The Valley already has several folks on the Los Angeles Times staff, but a few weeks ago, the Times named Innovation Editor Russ Stanton as the newspaper’s top editor.
Stanton is 49, a 10-year veteran of The Times. Stanton moved early last year from business editor to the innovation editor in charge of Internet journalism. Lew Griswold of The Bee's staff wrote,
Stanton is a graduate of Tulare Union High School, class of 1977. Even in high school he wrote prep sports for the Tulare Advance-Register. He cited the influence of high school teacher Lee Terkelsen in inspiring him toward a career in journalism. Stanton went to College of the Sequoias, then Sacramento State University, where he graduated with a combo government/journalism major. His first newspaper job was at the Visalia Times-Delta, from 1981-83, covering business and ag. In classic fashion, Stanton worked his way up the newspaper farm leagues: Times-Delta, San Bernardino Sun, Riverside Press-Enterprise, Orange County Register, and finally the L.A. Times, first in Orange County and then "downtown." His mother, Helen Stanton, lives in Visalia.
Read Stanton’s speech to the newsroom here.
Read the story about his appointment at the LA Times by clicking here.
While we are on the topic of journalism, how about those kids over at Fresno Christian High School. Their online newspaper, The Feather, is getting national attention again. For the third consecutive year, The Feather Online newspaper has been nominated as a finalist for the National Scholastic Press Association Online Pacemaker competition.
Pacemaker winners will be announced during a convention held in Anaheim on April 19.
Greg Stobbe is the adviser for thefeather.com.
Gail,
Thanks for the plug for The Feather and its staff. Advising this group has been a thrill this school year. They keep surprising me as to their passion and commitment for a high school publication. I am amazed as to their vision, perseverance and fortitude.
What is also amazing is that they compete against school populations over 10 times their size.
One last note, The Feather staff competed on March 1 at Fresno State and won the annual San Joaquin Valley Scholastic Press Association's high school newspaper print competition. Schools from Lodi to Bakersfield are invited, regardless of size. The Feather staff won the coveted Sweepstakes award given to the grand champion of the day. This is the first time a small school has won the award.
(The contact person at Fresno State is Dr. Gary Rice of the Mass Communication and Journalism Department. He can be reached at grice@csufresno.edu or 559.278.2026).