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Times O.C. Appoints 2 Newsroom Leaders

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Times Orange County Edition on Thursday named Michael Young as managing editor and appointed Joan Springhetti to the newly created position of assistant managing editor, completing a series of top-level changes aimed at bolstering regional coverage.

Young, 49, the edition’s Business editor, and Springhetti, 45, the edition’s Life & Style editor, take over their new posts Monday. Springhetti also retains her duties temporarily in Life & Style.

“Both are tremendously creative and energetic journalists who have a great deal of vision and insight,” said Lennie La Guire, who took over this week as editor of the edition. “They will be essential to me as part of the senior team that charts the direction of the paper.”

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“We want to create a higher-impact, agenda-setting [edition] in tune with the readers of Orange County and Southern California,” she said.

Young joined the Orange County edition in 1987 as assistant city editor. He became editor of the edition’s View section, now Life & Style, in 1989, and Times Orange County Business editor in 1995.

The Chicago native added duties last year as deputy business editor for The Los Angeles Times, focusing on regional coverage and strategic planning between Business sections in Los Angeles and Orange County.

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He also is a regular guest lecturer at the American Press Institute in Washington and occasionally works with smaller newspapers as a writing coach.

A 1975 Ohio State University journalism graduate, Young worked briefly at Sun Newspapers in Cleveland, then moved to the Boston area to work for the Middlesex News as city hall reporter and, later, as metro editor.

In 1980, he joined the Providence (R.I.) Journal, where he worked in various jobs, including investigative editor and city editor.

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He lives in Cowan Heights with his wife, Karen, and two daughters.

Springhetti joined the San Diego edition of The Times in 1990 as its North County Focus editor. When the edition folded in December 1992, she moved to Orange County to work as assistant Life & Style editor. She was promoted to editor of the section in 1995.

Springhetti, who was born and raised in Rapid City, S.D., graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1976 and worked for the Times-Courier in Charleston, Ill., before joining the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., where she was senior news editor.

She moved to Southern California in 1985 to join the San Diego Union, where she worked as a news editor and a section editor.

She lives in Newport Beach with her daughter.

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