TCN welcomes three to newsroom

Los Angeles Times Community News (TCN), which publishes the Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent and TheOCnow.com, has hired two new reporters and a page designer/copy editor for its news operations in Orange County.

Lauren Williams joined the Daily Pilot staff Monday as a public safety and courts reporter. She takes over the beat from reporter Joseph Serna, who will now cover Costa Mesa City Hall full time.

Williams previously served as an editorial assistant in the Los Angeles Times newsroom, a stringer for City News Service and editor in chief for TeaTime-Mag, an online English-language publication in Santiago, Chile.

Williams has bachelor’s degrees in political science and journalism from Cal State Long Beach, where she also worked on the campus newspaper, the Daily 49er.

Joanna Clay, a former Daily Pilot freelance contributor and intern, is now a general assignment reporter for the Coastline Pilot. She will continue to contribute to the Daily Pilot as well.

Clay started as a TCN staffer in late February. She earned bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and Spanish from UC Irvine.

Matt Murray recently joined the TCN operation as a page designer for all three newspapers in the group. He previously worked for more than 15 years in a variety of functions at the Long Beach Press-Telegram, including as a page designer for the sports section.

Murray has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Cal State Fullerton.

“Matt, Joanna and Lauren are great additions to our newsroom,” said John Canalis, editor of TCN in Orange County. “They are smart, curious and creative people who care deeply about local journalism and will add a lot to our print and online reports.”