Letters From The Editor:

By John Canalis

March 19, 2010 12 AM PT

Those of you who follow us on Facebook may have noticed some inconsistencies in how frequently we update our pages.

Some days we update them, some days we don’t.

That changes now.

We are making social media a priority for the Daily Pilot, the Huntington Beach Independent, the Coastline Pilot and O.C. Now — a site that aggregates news and sports from those three newspapers, as well as from the Los Angeles Times and our media partner, OCLNN.Com.

Thanks to our talented Web editor, Jamie Wetherbe, each of the Times Community Newspapers in Orange County has a new Facebook page.

The news feeds update shortly after stories go live online and also feature content unique to our Facebook pages, such as story previews and invitations to discuss local issues.

We’ve already started posting on the wall.

Huntington Beach Independent City Editor Michael Miller used Facebook this week to preview the third installment in an interesting series on Huntington Beach’s examination of the Lost Boys of Sudan, the subject of a citywide read-one-book program.

Over in Laguna Beach, Coastline Pilot’s city editor, Cindy Frazier, previewed a story about why sea lion pups are washing ashore along the Orange Coast due to dehydration and starvation.

And I wrote an advance on the Daily Pilot and O.C. Now pages about the Costa Mesa debate between the two Republicans running for governor.

Some of you may have already been “friends” with us on Facebook. No more.

Let me explain. Those original Facebook pages will be deleted, largely because Facebook gears them to individuals, not businesses, and we are, after all, in business.

We would directly import our friends’ lists from the old pages if we could, but we can’t.

So we are asking our Facebook “friends” — and sorry for how immodest this sounds — to become “fans” instead.

To make that happen, just follow these links:

Daily Pilot: tinyurl.com/yz3uflj

Huntington Beach Independent: tinyurl.com/yamaufj

Coastline Pilot: tinyurl.com/ybpbur2

O.C. Now: tinyurl.com/ybnfun4

JOHN CANALIS is the editor for Times Community News South, which publishes the Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent, Coastline Pilot and O.C. Now. He can be reached at (714) 966-4607.

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John Canalis

John Canalis works with editorial and finance to execute the editorial budget and serves as a liaison with the business side to develop and fine-tune initiatives that generate new revenue. He coordinates with senior management, Human Resources and the L.A. Times Guild on labor-related and personnel issues. He is a member of the management bargaining team and has oversight over implementation of the collective bargaining agreement. Canalis previously served as executive editor of Times Community News. He came to The Times in 2010 from the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where he worked in multiple roles, including as business/city editor, assistant city editor, assistant editorial pages editor, columnist and county government reporter. A lifelong Southern California resident, Canalis has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Cal State Long Beach and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

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