Times Names New Editor in Ventura

William Overend, city editor of The Times’ Ventura County Edition since 1992, has been named editor of the edition effective immediately. Overend replaces Julia C. Wilson, who was recently named president of the Valley and Ventura County editions and a vice president of The Times.

“Bill Overend is the quintessential journalist, one with excellent reporting and writing skills as well as keen editing capabilities,” said Times Editor Shelby Coffey III. “He has strong ties with the community and is committed to producing the best newspaper in Ventura County.”

Narda Zacchino, Times associate editor, said Overend’s experience as an editor is invaluable in the highly competitive Ventura County market. “He’s a William Overendhighly respected leader with immense enthusiasm for this work,” she said.

A Chicago native, Overend graduated from Arizona State University. He worked as a feature writer for the Arizona Republic and the International Herald Tribune in Paris, then as a writer, editor and producer for CBS News for six years.

Overend, 54, joined The Times in 1976 as a feature writer in the View section and later covered law enforcement and federal courts before moving to Ventura as the bureau chief of the county’s weekly edition in 1989. When that edition became a daily publication in March 1990, Overend was named assistant city editor. He was promoted to city editor in 1992.

Overend, a resident of Ventura, has been honored for his writing on issues such as drug law enforcement, the lives of homeless people and problems with court systems. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing by The Times in 1984.