09/29/2004


Butler named AP assistant chief for California and Nevada

LOS ANGELES -- Kate Lee Butler, senior business team leader of The Orange County Register, has been appointed assistant chief of bureau for The Associated Press in California and Nevada.

The appointment was announced Sept. 29 by Clay Haswell, the news cooperative's chief of bureau for California and Nevada.

Butler will assist in development of new online and newspaper products as well as marketing efforts. She replaces Andy Lippman, who has taken an extended leave.

Butler brings more than 20 years of news experience, mostly as a newsroom leader in business departments, to the position.

Since 1998, she has directed a 25-person staff at the Register that produces a daily business section. In addition, she has led or served on numerous newsroom-wide internal projects for the paper.

Before joining the Register, Butler was business editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune. She also has been senior editor at Bloomberg News in London and a reporter and editor at papers in Massachusetts and Connecticut, including the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the New Haven Register.

A Massachusetts native, she is a graduate of Wellesley College, where she studied economics.