Pilot’s Lobdell, Marble promoted to new positions

After nearly 10 years of steering the Daily Pilot through hundreds of

news stories and journalism awards, including a coveted statewide general

excellence prize, Editor William Lobdell has handed over his post to Tony

Dodero, who began his career at the newspaper as an intern.

Lobdell will spend more time as the editorial chief of Los Angeles

Times Community News division, which publishes 22 newspapers throughout

Southern California, including the Pilot.

In a related move, Steve Marble, longtime Daily Pilot managing editor,

former city editor and reporter, will also relinquish his title to join

Lobdell as the No. 2 man of the 275-member community news division.

“It would have been impossible to take the Pilot from its lean times

in the early ‘90s to profitability in recent years without Bill’s and

Steve’s leadership,” Publisher Tom Johnson said. “I’m happy for their

expanding careers and, fortunately, they’ll be close enough to use them

as a resource.”

Dodero, who will report to Lobdell and Marble, is a former Pilot

reporter and assistant managing editor, in addition to working as news

editor of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Tina Borgatta, the Daily Pilot’s current assistant managing editor,

has been promoted to senior editor of the Times Community News division

operations in North Orange County.

“This is a great promotion for Tina, who’s done a fantastic job for

us,” Lobdell said. “And Tony -- with his long-standing knowledge of our

community -- will be perfect as the new Pilot editor.”

In addition, former Daily Pilot reporter Jenifer Ragland has been

named senior city editor and will join current City Editor S.J. Cahn.

Sherman Turntine, a Times Community News senior editor, will take over as

the news editor of the Pilot. The four will form the Daily Pilot’s

editorial management team.

Also, Noaki Schwartz, a former reporter with Times Community News in

Rancho Santa Margarita, has been named the Newport Beach reporter for the

Daily Pilot.

Lobdell, who was editor and president of OC Metro Magazine and managing

editor of World Trade magazine, was named editor of the Daily Pilot in

1990. A graduate of UCI, he has guided the paper through several

tumultuous years, which included a recession in the early 1990s and

changes in the newspaper’s coverage area.

Marble, who began his career at the Daily Pilot in 1980 as a

reporter, ascended the ranks over the years to managing editor, a title

he’s held for nearly 10 years.

“Steve is not only the most gifted writer in the Pilot’s history, but

has also served as a mentor to hundreds of journalists -- both reporters

and editors -- who now populate some of the nation’s best newspapers,”

Johnson said.

Lobdell, along with Marble, was at the helm during some of the paper’s

most challenging news stories including the embezzlements by former city

and school officials, a sexual harassment scandal in the Newport Police

Department, the tragic car crash involving Newport Harbor High students

and most recently, the killing of two children at a local preschool.

Dodero covered Newport Beach City Hall for the Pilot in 1992-1993 and

was the paper’s news editor and assistant managing editor from 1995 to

1998. After a short stint as news editor of the Long Beach

Press-Telegram, he was named senior editor of Times Community News.

Ragland was a former reporter at the Lake Tahoe Daily Tribune and at

the Pilot’s sister paper, the Huntington Beach Independent, before taking

the job as Newport Beach reporter from 1998 to 1999. She has been working

as an assistant city editor for a South County Times Community News

publication.

Turntine, who has been on the Times Community News copy desk since

October 1998, is a longtime veteran of the newspaper business, formerly

working at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Los Angeles Daily News and

the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.