Top Independent editor is laid off

Director of News and Online and 20-year journalism veteran Tony Dodero has left the newspaper as part of the latest round of layoffs at the Times Community News, it was announced this week.

As online manager, Dodero oversaw the online operations of the Huntington Beach Independent and its sister newspapers, including the Daily Pilot and the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. The Daily Pilot is the flagship paper of Times Community News.

“The Daily Pilot is a very special newspaper, and I will be cheering from the sidelines for it to continue to exist,” Dodero said Tuesday. “It means too much for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa for it not to exist.”

Daily Pilot and Independent Managing Editor Brady Rhoades has been named editor.

Rhoades came to Times Community News in June 2007 after serving as assistant managing editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group for five years. Prior to that, he was a city editor at the Orange County Register.

“Tony has been an invaluable part of the success of the Daily Pilot,” Rhoades said. “On a professional and a personal level, he’ll be missed. The Daily Pilot will continue its core mission of giving our readers the most compelling and relevant information about Newport Beach and Costa Mesa in print and online.”

Dodero began his career at the Daily Pilot as an intern in 1989 when he was 28.

He covered Newport Beach City Hall in 1992 and 1993, and served as news editor and assistant managing editor from 1995 to 1998. He was named editor in 1999.

Dodero was promoted to general manager of online for Times Community News, a division of the Los Angeles Times that includes the Daily Pilot, in 2005.

During his tenure, Dodero saw the Pilot’s web audience grow from about 1,500 hits a day to 7,000. The Daily Pilot now gets about 1 million page views per month, he said.

“I will miss the readers more than anything,” Dodero said. “Even if I didn’t always agree with them, I could always count on them to take me to task and hold me accountable.”

Dodero is the latest upper management departure from the Daily Pilot and Independent newsrooms. Publisher Tom Johnson, who worked at the Pilot for 15 years, resigned in July.

The Daily Pilot has gone through three rounds of layoffs this year as the newspaper industry nationwide copes with declining readership, lagging advertising sales and the rising cost of newsprint.

“The Los Angeles Times Media group, including Times Community Newspapers, and our advertisers aren’t any less immune to the twists and turns of the current economic times than virtually all other businesses and institutions in Southern California. As such, we continue to evaluate and right-size our organization and operations to succeed,” John O’Loughlin said in a written statement. O’Loughlin is president of targeted media and senior vice president of marketing for the Los Angeles Times, which owns the Daily Pilot.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].