Voas Named Editor

Jeremy Voas has been appointed editor of New Times, executive editor Michael Lacey announced Tuesday. He succeeds John Mecklin, who has been named editor of SF Weekly in San Francisco. Both publications are owned by Phoenix-based New Times, Inc.

Voas, 40, has been managing editor of New Times since 1992. Before that, he published newspapers in California, served as an assistant city editor at the Phoenix Gazette and as managing editor of the Sierra Vista Herald and Bisbee Daily Review. He was a finalist for the Nixon Newspapers National Journalism Writing Award in 1994 and has won numerous state and regional writing and headline-writing awards.

Mecklin, 43, came to New Times in August 1993. Under his guidance, the publication consistently won national journalism awards and dominated Arizona journalism competitions. New Times journalists won Arizona's reporter and photographer of the year awards in each of the past two years. During 1996, New Times writers won a Silver Gavel from the American Bar Association, and six citations from the prestigious Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards. In October, Time magazine reported, "Phoenix New Times beat that city's dailies on the corruption scandals of Governor Fife Symington III."

"It was a real honor to work with the level of talent that's employed at Phoenix New Times, but I'm looking forward to San Francisco, too," Mecklin said.

Voas said, "I expect New Times to maintain its long tradition of definitive, literary journalism, beholden to nobody but the readers. We'll continue to stress investigative reporting and our cultural and entertainment news."

He said a managing editor would be named soon.
New Times, Inc., owns seven newsweeklies with an aggregate circulation exceeding 800,000. In addition to Phoenix New Times and SF Weekly, they are Los Angeles New Times, Westword of Denver, Dallas Observer, Houston Press and Miami New Times.