It took some time, but PaidContent.org has finally found someone to step into the slot previously occupied by Andrew Wallenstein. Starting January 9, Daniel Frankel—formerly of TheWrap and Variety (pictured)—will take over as west coast based senior editor. His last day at TheWrap was December 30.

“PaidContent has been trying to establish a west coast operation for a while,” Frankel tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “We had some talks last spring and then continued talking. PaidContent also lost David Kaplan, so I will be doing some coverage of New York advertising and publishing as well.”

Frankel, who will be home-based, is familiar with that territory from his days with Adweek. He comes to PaidContent after a long stint at TheWrap as news editor and senior writer. After being laid off at Variety the same day as Mike Speier, Frankel began freelancing for the latter at TheWrap in May of 2009 and joined the website’s staff in October of that same year.

“The thing I’m most proud of is just watching and helping TheWrap grow,” says Frankel. “I worked with some great people—Dominic Patten, Lew Harris, Brent Lang—to just slowly coalesce a product that was competitive on the best days with the big trades. Even though we did this with a staff, editorially speaking, of four to five people, competing with teams of 40.”

[Photo source: @DannyFrankel]