After last week's story that the Los Angeles Times was laying off all of their freelance writers, Two Los Angeles Times columnists, Richard Rayner and Susan Salter Reynolds, are moving their columns to the Los Angeles Review of Books after they were let go by the Times late last month. Rayner, whose column is "Paperback Writers," is a critic and essayist and author of five novels and four nonfiction titles, including the novel Los Angeles Without a Map and, most recently, A Bright And Guilty Place, a history of notorious crimes in 1920s and '30s Los Angeles. Reynolds, who wrote the "Discoveries" book column at LAT, will write two columns of reviews per month for the online magazine beginning in late August.

“Richard Rayner is one of Los Angeles’s finest writers and critics, and we’re thrilled that he’s joining us at the Review,” said Tom Lutz, editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books. “For years, his column has been a touchstone for readers in Los Angeles and throughout the world of books.”

“It’s a sad indicator of where things stand in the book world that my column ‘Paperback Writers’ was dropped by the Los Angeles Times,” said Rayner. “But I’m delighted and thrilled that it will now be carried by the Los Angeles Review of Books, a vibrant new publication which has already featured so many great writers and is set on refreshing and expanding L.A.’s literary landscape.”

Rayner’s column focuses on paperback publication: reissues, new titles, and classics.