Investigative reporter quietly leaves town

Union-Tribune investigative reporter James DeHaven, touted by the U-T as “part of a team that uncovered billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s secret purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal” when he went to work at the San Diego paper in September 2016, has quietly left town to become state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal. While DeHaven’s late-November departure went unheralded, the retirement of U-T circulation field support coordinator Dave Cramer, capping a 47-year career at what used to be known as the Copley Press, landed on page B-3 on New Year’s Day.

Meanwhile, tronc, the oddly-named chain that owns the U-T, has yet to name a new editor and publisher to replace the New York Daily News’s Arthur Browne, who retired December 31. “The office will be broom clean when she or he arrives,” Browne told CNN regarding the vacancy at the paper, which tronc acquired for one dollar in cash plus assuming about $30 million in pension debt. Another notable staffer to leave the U-T last year included star columnist Dan McSwain, who said in a farewell piece he was suffering from mild cognitive decline.