Robert Rawitch Named Executive Editor of The Times’ Valley Edition

Robert Rawitch, suburban editor of The Times since 1983, Tuesday was named to the new position of executive editor of the Valley Edition by Editor Shelby Coffey III.

Rawitch will assume overall responsibility for the Valley’s news-gathering operation. He will work closely with Jeff Hall, the new president of the edition, who is in charge of non-editorial operations. Rawitch will report to Noel Greenwood, deputy managing editor.

Rawitch, 43, has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Cal State Northridge and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

He joined The Times full-time in 1968 as a general-assignment reporter. As a reporter he did a number of investigative projects, winning several awards, and covered education and the federal courts.

He became an assistant metropolitan editor in 1979, editor of a twice-weekly Valley section in 1981 and suburban editor in 1983.

In 1984 he supervised the creation of the daily Valley Edition, in which pages of local news and advertising are added to sections of The Times. The edition circulates in the San Fernando Valley and as far west as Camarillo and as far north as Lancaster.

Weekly sections for Glendale and Ventura County are also supervised from the Valley Edition offices in Chatsworth and will be among Rawitch’s responsibilities.

Rawitch’s professional activities have included membership on the national board of the Society of Professional Journalists, the presidency of its Los Angeles chapter and the chairmanship of the California Freedom of Information Committee.

He is currently on the boards of directors of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and the California First Amendment Coalition.

His wife, Cynthia, is an assistant professor of journalism at Cal State Northridge. They and their three children, Dana, Jeremy and Joshua, live in Northridge.