Letters from the editor: Enjoy Weekend's new countywide business page

Letters from the editor: Enjoy Weekend’s new countywide business page

By John Canalis

Oct. 16, 2015 12 AM PT

One of the nicest surprises for me this year has been the success of Weekend, the entertainment and lifestyle publication included with all Sunday editions of the Los Angeles Times circulated in Orange County.

Weekend allowed the staff of Times Community News, which produces the Daily Pilot, the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and the Huntington Beach Independent, to explore what is happening outside of the coastal zone they usually mine for stories. And the response has been terrific — readers have told me they had long wanted a countywide product and are glad they have one now.

Because Weekend has worked so well, we have decided to grow it a bit by adding a weekly Business page Oct. 18. The page will include some of the features that Weekend readers have already come to expect — profiles of the interesting principals behind retailers and restaurants — as well as stories on the real estate, healthcare, technology, fashion and the nonprofit sectors.

The idea is to give readers insight into the people behind Orange County’s rich and diverse economic engine. Our stories will be geared more toward a general audience than what you’d find in a financial publication. Good business stories are always more about people than spreadsheets.

That doesn’t mean we’ll shy away from numbers. We’ll have plenty of those in the Business section. But we’re putting business people front and center, whether they’re entrepreneurs, managers or everyday workers.

So enjoy Weekend’s business section, which you can find in print inside the Sunday Times and online at www.dailypilot.com/weekend.

JOHN CANALIS is the editor for Weekend, the Daily Pilot, the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and the Huntington Beach Independent. He can be reached at (714) 966-4607 and [email protected].

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.