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Two LAist Editors Hired by the LA Times
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July was a bittersweet month for LAist. We had a record-breaking month with nearly a million visitors coming to our humble site. Little did we know that some of the guests were big wigs from the venerable Los Angeles Times who left with two of our editors.
Indeed, several weeks ago our Film Editor Elina Shatkin was snapped up from our midsts to become Content Producer for CalendarLive at LATimes.com, and yesterday our Sports Editor Adam Rose also got the call up to the pros and will soon be the USC Sports Blogger for the Times.
Elina swears that her time at LAist helped her get recognized by the local paper, but I say it was her sharp wit and excellent coverage of the LA film industry, especially her livebloggin at the MTV Movie Awards that would have gotten her on everyone's radar no matter what site she was rocking for.
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In 11 months Elina busted with 245 posts that not just covered film beautifully and was one of the first to say that Pans Labyrinth was not all that, but branched out into the Pinkberry scandal, doled out that great photo essay of the coolest gas station in Beverly Hills, interviewed teen sensation Smoosh, as well as the trippy dude from the local billboards.
"Writing for LAist has been an awesome experience," Elina said in an email to the contributers when she announced her new job, and the fact that she was stepping down as Film Editor. "Although I started doing it as a lark (my boyfriend recommended that I send Tony a film review and see if he wanted to run it on the site), I do think that it was largely my work here at LAist that landed me the gig at the LAT. For anyone interested in a career (or at least a job) in journalism or writing, I think blogging is definitely the way to go. LAist will always have a special place in my heart and among my bookmarks."
Her first byline for the Times was this Live Earth story in July. We're very proud of her and confident that she will do quite well on Spring Street.
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Adam Rose began his LAist career with the classic post "Why USC Haters are Lame" and quickly cranked out 267 posts over 11 months.
Most of Adam's posts were the late-night recaps called LAst Night's Action that humorously summarized the previous day's games, however when he went to football games he usually came back with some sweet footage from the rowdy stands, or tips on how to be safe, so we thank him. And yes he was there when the Bruins upset the Trojans at the Rose Bowl.
Adam also brought us an unforgettable photo essay and videos reporting on streaking in Santa Monica, which we had forgotten about until today. Our eyes!
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Rose is excited about his new gig, particularly the perks.
"I've already been invited to practices (which are open, anyway) and Tuesday luncheons with Pete Carroll. I consider free food an important perk of any job," he said.
The Trojan says that his choice of where to go to college helped him get this paying gig blogging for the biggest paper in town, and LAist even helped a smidge.
"I wouldn't be the right guy for this if I didn't have some connection with USC," Rose said. "Being with LAist was a huge key to getting this. It was probably as important as being a Trojan, if not more. LAist has given me an amazing opportunity to write every day about sports in Los Angeles. I've been able to learn a lot about sports, sports media, and sports as a business."
Thanks to some excellent negotiations, Adam will remain the LAist Sports Editor, posting up his nightly roundups, but will refrain from doing any solo posts on USC, reserving those, of course for his new job. A job that he is very happy to have, particularly since it involves the medium of blogging.
Says Rose, "any sports desk can tell you how many yards the running back had or if the kicker missed a field goal. Blogging allows for so much more. There's unlimited space to tell stories that capture the USC experience. I'm not restricted by column inches. I can do a big photo essay anytime I feel like it. And when was the last time you watched a video in the Sunday newspaper?"
LAist is very happy that our contributers and editors continue to get recognized, and we expect to see more of them get discovered through this site as they continue their journey in blogging, writing, and photography.
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