UTC alumnus Davan Maharaj was recently named Managing Editor of the Los Angeles Times. Maharaj had been the business editor at the newspaper since February 2007.
Maharaj was managing editor of the UTC student newspaper, the Echo in 1988. He graduated in 1989 with a double major in political science and communication. Maharaj received the master’s degree in law from Yale University.
In a blog titled “Readers Representative Journal” on the Los Angeles Times website, Editor Russ Stanton published this message in a piece called “Changes at the top.” He also mentions John Arthur, recently promoted to Executive Editor:
“In this key position, Davan will assume oversight of Foreign, National, Metro, Sports, Business, and Science — shaping coverage, deploying people and overseeing personnel decisions along with me and John. The editors of these sections will report to Davan. He will also supervise the formation of the new topic teams that we will be rolling out later this year.
One of Davan’s primary responsibilities will be to work with the section editors to keep the story pipeline to A1 and John, and the website and Meredith Artley, full of the great journalism we produce each day. He will report to me.
Davan’s outstanding management and editing skills make him the ideal person to take on this assignment. His broad range of experience will serve him and his new departments well. Working for The Times from Orange County, Los Angeles and East Africa, he reported with distinction in each of these areas.
Among the highlights from his more than 20 years of reporting was the six-part series “Living on Pennies,” his collaboration with photographer Francine Orr, which won the 2005 Ernie Pyle Award for Human Interest Writing. The series inspired readers to send tens of thousands of dollars to aid people and agencies working in Africa. Closer to home, Davan’s investigative piece about a Leisure World attorney who inherited millions of dollars in stock, land and other “gifts” from his clients changed California probate law.
Once Davan put down his notebook, he became an assistant editor in Foreign, helping supervise coverage around the world, and then served in Business, first as a deputy editor, then as section editor.
Under his leadership, Business refocused its coverage on consumer issues, producing a stream of A1 stories and a redesigned Sunday section that has been a big hit with readers. Business has been among the most advanced departments in improving our report on latimes.com, a crucial part of our success going forward, and has excelled at developing nontraditional ways of telling stories in print…Anyone who has worked closely with Davan knows him as a passionate advocate for good stories, and for the people who work hard to produce them. His energy and enthusiasm are infectious. There’s no question that we are engaged in serious challenges for our industry, but Davan manages to keep things upbeat and fun amid the daily pressures we face.”
