Bob Sipchen's Job Du Jour!

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2005/11/sipchen_leaves_current.html

From Kevin at LAOBSERVED:

Bob Sipchen, the editorial architect of the Times' Current section (former Sunday Opinion), is moving back into the newsroom for a role in an as-yet-unannounced new initiative. Sipchen's departure from the second-floor opinion lair is not unexpected. He had thrived under former opinion editor Michael Kinsley, who brought him in from the Outdoors section (which Sipchen also started) to create Current.

And...

Today's memo from Editor Dean Baquet... Does mention Sipchen's Pulitzer for editorial writing - and hints that the new initiative will involve the web and California.

OK, other than the fact poor old Bob just can't seem to hold down a steady job these days, this is good news. As much as I liked Outdoors, not that many people read it (the problem being that if you liked that kind of thing - you would never be caught dead reading the LA Times) and if anyone can even FIND Current buried in the Sunday Times, they are probably too tired by then to read it.

But with local coverage of LA being pretty slim pickings and the website being still in the 1.0 version on its good days, not only might Bob do some good in these areas, but he might even finally be working in part of the paper where he might actually get read.

As for the rumor that Bob was shown the door at Current three weeks after a certain unnamed cowboy was allowed to write an opinion piece in Current, that rumor is, of course, totally without merit.