Congrats to all finalists (so far) for the LA Press Club’s 55th annual SoCal Journalism Awards, to be presented at the Biltmore Hotel Sunday June 23. In perusing the honor rolls, here are some of the categories that most intrigued us:

Journalist of the Year – Print (Over 50,000 Circulation):

The name we were not completely familiar with – alongside those of Gustavo Arellano (OC Weekly), Matthew Belloni (THR), Gene Maddaus (LA Weekly) and Matthew Garrahan (Financial Times) – is U-T San Diego’s Fred Dickey (no relation to TMZ managing editor Josh). Even if this Dickey wins, he will still have a tough road to hoe in that department at home. According to his website bio, microbiologist wife Kathleen has lent her name to nine U.S. patents.

Journalist of the Year – Online

These are dark days for Patch, with a conference call last Friday as reported by Romenesko revealing more rough tactical agenda items. But here in SoCal, the sun is shining on Rancho Santa Margarita local editor Martin Henderson. He is nominated in this category together with Dennis Romero (LA Weekly), Dylan Howard (Celebuzz), Chris Hedges (Truthdig) and Catherine Green (Neon Tommy). This guy has paid his dues, winning his first journalism award in high school and starting at the LA Times all the way back in1990.

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Today is D-Day at BuzzMedia. However, company CEO Stephen Hansen (pictured) wants to be very clear about something within the context of the layoff of approximately 50 employees (two thirds in New York, the other third in LA).

“One of the things I was committed to when I took over as CEO was making sure we had the capital to make the changes that would really add a lot of value,” Hansen tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “We received a tremendous amount of support from our existing investors and there is $15 million of additional capital that came into the business in the first part of 2013. We’ll be profitable in 2013, so I think we’re in really good shape.”

“For what it’s worth, there are a lot of reasons why people make hard decisions like the ones we’re making now,” he adds. “I’ve been through ups and downs, and crashes, and bubbles bursting, and all that sort of thing. The good news is that’s not the case here.”

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This afternoon, via Facebook, CELEBUZZ executive editor Joseph Kapsch announced he was leaving his New York post. Just a few months after exiting The Hollywood Reporter and relocating cross-country.

“A decision like this is never easy to make,” CELEBUZZ editor-in-chief Dylan Howard tells FishbowlLA. “I wish Joseph the absolute best as he begins the next phase of his professional life.” The Kapsch departure comes weeks after BUZZMEDIA VP of programming Gillian Sheldon shifted to Berman Braun.

Such is life at a fast-paced, celebrity-driven operation. Meaning that along with these two departures, there are a variety of new CELEBUZZ arrivals to pass on:

- Andrea Simpson, who worked with Howard at Radar Online and Star magazine, is CELEBUZZ news director;

- Kristin Koch, formerly senior editor of style at XO Group, has assumed the similar title of senior editor at CELEBUZZ. She also previously contributed to Vanity Fair and iVillage;

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Celebuzz editor-in-chief Dylan Howard has been keeping tabs on the Hollywood high-stakes poker circuit story from day one. In late June 2011, he was the first reporter to detail A-list aspects of the ring via a Star magazine cover story (pictured). This morning, he’s got an exclusive and explosive rundown of a 206-page deposition given this spring by Brad Ruderman, the convicted hedge fund Ponzi scheme operator who was a regular player (and loser) alongside the likes of Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“When all the celebrities in this secret street circuit settled their suits, I didn’t think we’d ever hear from Ruderman – in his own words,” Howard tells FishbowlLA. “With that, I think it would be fair to say a slew of famous names breathed a sigh of relief: they did not have to appear in court, the inner-workings of the ring were therefore saved a public hearing. That is why obtaining Ruderman’s deposition, made before the [May 2012] settlement, was so important in shining a light on this story.”

Howard’s article opens with an explanation of just how instrumental Maguire was in securing Ruderman’s attendance at the bi-weekly matches beginning in 2006. From there, his latest piece about the $50,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em games takes on the sheen of a Vanity Fair-like expose:

Some Hollywood heavy hitters were invited, but rebuffed the group – like Jeffery Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation and the former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. “There were people that didn’t want to play in this game because they were concerned about that [the commissioned organization of the home games by Molly Bloom].” He was instructed to name names, under oath. “I’d rather not say, but they’re very, very prominent people,” said Ruderman.“I’m going to request that you answer the question,” a lawyer said. He finally relented. “Was this person’s name brought up at the table?” a lawyer asked.“Did I bring it up? ” he responded. “No. But was Jeffery Katzenberg’s name brought up? Yes.”

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Who doesn’t love a great New York Post front-page headline? If anything can keep newsprint rolling into the kiosks and vending boxes of a major American metropolis, it is the NYP’s flair for 48-point font shenanigans.

During our recent “So What Do You Do…” conversation with Celebuzz editor-in-chief Dylan Howard, this was an additional topic of conversation. For the record, here are three of Howard’s all-time favorites:

When it was discovered that Osama bin Laden had pornography in his secret lair, the Post declared “OSAMA BIN WANKIN.” The sub header was just as good: “IT’S WHORA BORA – PORN FOUND IN LADEN’S FOXHOLE.”

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It’s been a month since Jethro Nededog switched to the professional channel of Celebuzz senior editor, TV. But one thing remains the same – he is reporting once more to good friend and mentor Joseph Kapsch.

The two previously worked together at the LA Times, Zap2it and, most recently, The Hollywood Reporter. Kapsch joined the fast-expanding BUZZMEDIA site in June as New York based executive editor, while Nededog has been working out of the company’s Hollywood offices since June 25.

“We care a lot about breaking news at Celebuzz, but we also care about the context of that news,” Nededog (pictured) told FishbowlLA Friday afternoon via telephone from Comic-Con. “For example, within my first week, I wrote a story about how Anderson Cooper‘s coming out will affect his TV career and viewers.”

Nededog, a native of San Diego and Comic-Con veteran, was at the show this year alongside Celebuzz movie writer Taryn Ryder. His numerous SDCC items included this text and video report about Australian actress Yvonne Strahovski joining the cast of Dexter.

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Yesterday, celebuzz.com editor-in-chief Dylan Howard posted a fantastically fun picture of Brad Pitt and Jason Priestley. It was taken in January 1991, during a small apartment gathering for the Bills-Giants Super Bowl XXV. The photo captures both actors at their pre-superstardom, innocent best.

It’s incredibly refreshing in today’s day and age of celebrity journalism to come across a photo scoop that is neither salacious nor sensational. FishbowlLA liked the picture so much, we asked Howard to tell us more.

“Who even knew Pitt and Priestley were pals? Not me, at least,” he says. “The irony here is that they would go on to become two of the biggest stars of their generation, within just months of this photo being snapped. Priestley with Beverly Hills 90210, which first started rating in the summer of that year and Pitt in Thelma and Louise.”

Howard says he has known the provider of the photo personally for a long time. By sheer coincidence, the day before on Celebuzz, there were some early 1980s photos of Jennifer Aniston. All that was missing this week was a close-up of baby Angelina.

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In the category of 2012 Radio Journalist of the Year, KCRW’s Warren Olney is surrounded. Per this weekend’s preliminary announcement of finalists for the LA Press Club’s 54th SoCal Journalism Awards, his fellow nominees are all sixth-tenths of a click down the FM dial: KPCC’s Larry Mantle, Stephanie O’Neill, Molly Peterson and Frank Stolze.

Dylan Howard, last year’s Entertainment Journalist of the Year, is nominated once again in that category. The only difference is that this time around, he’s representing celebuzz.com rather than Star magazine and Radar Online. For the repeat, he will have to best Nikki Finke, THR’s Alex Ben Block and LA Weekly film critic Karina Longworth.

Meanwhile, despite a recent LA riots coverage snafu, Longworth’s alt-weekly colleague Simone Wilson is in the Online Journalist of the Year bracket, alongside a bunch of political outlet heavyweights. She’ll have to beat CNN.com’s Michael Martinez, Truthdig’s Chris Hedges, The Huffington Post’s Robert David Jaffe and the enviroreporter.com tandem of Michael Collins and Denise Ann Duffield.

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We told you earlier this month about Dylan Howard moving from Star magazine and Radar Online to celebuzz.com as the BUZZMEDIA site’s new editor-in-chief. At the time, Howard promised he would be “hiring some of the best journalists in our beat over the coming weeks.”

The first hire is a good one. Relocating within a few weeks from LA to New York as celebuzz.com’s incoming executive editor will be Joseph Kapsch (pictured), currently the editor of THR.com. One of the reasons for the move is that it will allow Kapsch to be closer to family. Here’s what Kapsch posted on his Facebook page:

SOME EXCITING/BREAKING PERSONAL NEWS: So most of you that know me well know that I’ve always said when the right time and opportunity arrived I would eventually head back to New York. Well, that time has arrived: Today, I accepted a new opportunity with BUZZMEDIA in New York as the executive editor, Celebuzz.

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This is definitely one of the funnier ways we have found out about a major shift in the ranks of top-tier entertainment journalists.

A little earlier today, we posted an item about the new Chevy Chase audio released on celebuzz.com. We were a little confused, as the byline was that of Dylan Howard (pictured), for the past two and a half years the senior executive editor of Star Magazine and Radar Online. Thankfully, Howard has set us straight via email:

I joined BUZZMEDIA as editor-in-chief of Celebuzz just a few weeks ago. My appointment is part of an original content effort that is intended to make Celebuzz the leading celebrity news source.

We have an exciting opportunity to create the definitive celebrity editorial experience — where readers will find showbiz content that is authoritative, comprehensive and engaging. It isn’t just about breaking news reporting — it is a contextual editorial experience in categories such as television, film, style. We’re also building state-of-the-art video studios in both our Los Angeles and New York offices and intend on producing quality live programming, each day.

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