Frank Girardot Announces He is Leaving the Pasadena Star-News

Frank C. Girardot, Editor of the Pasadena Star-News and the Senior Metro Editor of the San Gabriel Valley News Group, said he is leaving the organizations on June 1.

“Yes it’s true. I’m leaving the Star-News and SGVN on Monday,” Girardot wrote on his Facebook page on Friday. “It’s been fun. I’ll miss my friends. I’ll miss journalism. Adios.”

After saying he has “an amazing partnership opportunity” that he’ll reveal after his last day working at the Star-News — which is Monday, June 1 – Girardot indicated he will be staying in the San Gabriel Valley.

Girardot was named editor of the Pasadena Star-News in April, 2010. Prior to that, he was the Metro Editor of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and managed 20 reporters working from three locations in Eastern Los Angeles County.

Girardot’s Facebook posting drew dozens of comments filled with compliments and messages lamenting his leaving the local daily.

“Big loss. You changed the culture at that paper, Frank,” wrote Eric Maundry. “It stopped trying to simply please the local establishment and began reporting real news.”

Catherine Gaugh, a former news reporter and news and features editor for the San Gabriel Valley News Group, commeted that “this has been a terrible year for the SGV papers, losing so many capable, talented journalists, and now, Frank, the heart of the newsroom, is leaving.”

In an earlier interview with Muckrack, a site about journalists, Girardot said realized he wanted to become a reporter after reading “All the President’s Men” as a sophomore in high school – even though his “career advisor” told him there was no future in journalism.

His first job in the newspaper industry was as a copy boy at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

“Grunt work, but it infused me with a love of reporting,” Girardot said.

He worked his way up to the night police beat desk and covered the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in San Francisco for the paper before it folded.

Girardot’s final stories for the San Gabriel Valley News Group were a series of reports focused on the City of Industry’s murky financial dealings.