With founding editors Laurie Ochoa and Joe Donnelly landing jobs at the LA Times and the Santa Barbara start-up Mission and State respectively, the fate of their LA-literary magazine Slake seemed to be in doubt. That was until today, when Donnelly sent around a link to a GOOD magazine grant campaign–which Slake hopes to be the beneficiary of.

Looks like it’s one of those social media, most votes gets the cash deals. So if you want to see Slake in print again, like we do, vote here.

The Los Angeles Times announced Wednesday that John Corrigan will succeed Sallie Hofmeister as the assistant managing editor for arts & entertainment.

Corrigan has been at the LAT since 1999 and was most recently the business editor.

“John brings a wealth of experience and energy to his new role,” said editor in chief Davan Maharaj in a memo. “As Business editor, he led a team of reporters and editors in making our financial report a model:  a combination of elegant features, hard-hitting investigative stories, and quick-hit breaking news on our blogs.”

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Here is about as plum an assignment as imaginable within the quadrangle of Hollywood trades. Beginning April 10, current Hollywood Reporter New York bureau chief and business editor Georg Szalai (pictured) will re-up in London as international business editor.

He will join senior staff member Stuart Kemp there, and be in close contact with other THR international contributors such as Scott Roxborough (Cologne) and Deborah Young (Rome). From today’s announcement:

“Georg is a first-rate business reporter whose breadth of knowledge and relationships on Wall Street remain an asset,” says THR editorial director Janice Min. “In his new role, he’ll expand The Reporter‘s reach as the global market becomes increasingly important to Hollywood and the entertainment industry overall.”

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The single most juicy question on the minds of media watchers in LA right now is undoubtedly whether Jonathan Gold is really heading to the LA Times. Over the weekend LA Observed reported that even though Gold had a signed deal with the LA Times, Village Voice Media owner Mike Lacey was pulling out all the stops to keep Gold at the LA Weekly--and a bidding war with the Times for Gold’s services was in full swing. This morning, however, a post on the food blog of the LA Weekly‘s sister paper The Village Voice seemed to confirm that Gold was indeed leaving for the LA Times.

The post’s title was unambiguous. “Jonathan Gold Leaving L.A. Weekly for L.A. Times,” screamed the headline. The author of the post then wished Gold “the greatest success in his new job.”

Well, that must be that then, no? The Village Voice is the biggest property in VVM’s chain. Lacey must have given them the scoop, figuring if he was going to lose Gold, he might as well hand his paper a big story.

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Erica Zora Wrightson‘s essay “Artichoke,” published in the debut issue of Slake, was just named a 2011 “Notable Essay” in this year’s edition of The Best American Essays.

Says Slake editor Joe Donnelly: “We published this meditation on some of her final memories of her mother in our first issue, and co-editor Laurie Ochoa likes to say it was one of the first pieces she received that told her Slake was going to be special.”

Wrightson’s achievement is great news for a mag which is in the midst of a Kickstarter fundraising drive. The more attention the better.

Wow. Neon Tommy’s Benjamin Gottlieb dug up a rather sensational scoop in a well-reported story on incoming LA Weekly editor-in-chief Sarah Fenske. It turns out that back when Fenske was a columnist for the Phoenix New Times a few years ago, she dated Mike Lacey–owner of the Weekly‘s parent company Village Voice Media.

This guy:

“We haven’t been involved for years,” Fenske told Neon Tommy. “I would hope that my work would stand for itself.”

Fair enough. Gross though. Very gross.

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For the first time this Fishie can remember the LA Weekly picked up only one first place award at the annual AltWeekly Awards. The paper cleaned house at the awards for years under Laurie Ochoa. But this year only Patrick Range McDonald got the nod in the Advocacy Journalism category. Jonathan Gold may have been a Pulitzer finalist this year, but his efforts somehow earned him only second place in the Food Writing category.

Also surprising, no first place awards for the OC Weekly.

Both papers did pick up a number of second and third places, however–as did the Pasadena Weekly and the San Diego CityBeat. Full list of winners here.

Drive made its much-hyped debut over the weekend at the LA Film Festival and this Fishie was on site to check out premiere. (Unfortunately, he’s not much of a photographer, so the above LA Times interview will have to suffice for visual imagery in lieu of his horrible, poorly lit photos.) Interesting factoid: Ron Pearlman‘s head is as big in person as you might expect. And so are his teeth. Another pleasant surprise: Christina Hendricks‘ widely publicized “full figure” is not mere media hyperbole. It is, in fact, the real deal.

Aside from gawking at celebrities, this Fishie managed to glean a small bit of advice from Drive’s Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn: “If you want to make the kind of films I make in Hollywood, the trick is to stay quiet, smile and nod a lot.”

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The LA Film Festival just announced the jurors for its narrative, documentary and shorts competitions. Looks like Slake‘s Laurie Ochoa is going to have a busy weekend, because not only is she among the staff of the pop-up newsroom Engine28.com, she’s judging the documentary category. Alongside her are Jeff Malmberg, director of the brilliant film Marwencol and executive director of the International Documentary Association Michael Lumpkin. Lynn Shelton, Giant Robot‘s Eric Nakamura and screenwriter Daniel Waters are handling the narrative competition while casting director Margery Simkin, film critic Alonso Duralde, and actress Lisa Gay Hamilton are the shorts jury.

Press release after the jump:

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For the next five days, one of the most massive conglomerations of theater festivals in the world is waylaying in Los Angeles: Radar L.A., Hollywood Fringe, the Asian American Theater Conference and Festival as well as 2011 the Theatre Communications Group (TCG) National Conference. That’s a tall order for arts journalists and editors to try to comprehensively cover at any time, let alone in the middle of the LA Film Fest.

But this year, USC Annenberg has conscripted 40 journalists from all over the country, including Susan Brenneman of the LA Times, Rebecca Haithcoat of LA Weekly, Edward Lifson, formerly of NPR, Steven Leigh Morris, critic-at-large for the LA Weekly and Laurie Ochoa, co-founder of Slake, to cover the madness. With former Philadelphia Inquirer arts editor Jeff Weinstein at the helm, the site, called Engine28.com, will serve as a five-day “pop-up newsroom” to cover as much of the theater bonanza as possible.

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