L.A. Weekly editor Drex Heikes has announced that Friday will be his last day with the paper, stepping down from the positon he has held since August 2009:

The job has been a joy. Readership of Weekly in print has risen 22 percent since 2009. Online, readership is up 36 percent. We have assembled a hell of a team of editors and writers. But I never intended the job to last forever–and I was unprepared for the offers and opportunities that continued to come my way.

Now I find myself in a position where I can afford to take a break, take my own time figuring out what I want to do next. Maybe it’s here in LA. Maybe it’s not…and if not, I want to take full measure of any prospective new community. The questions are: Where do we want to raise our daughter? Where do we want to be in five years?

Heikes added, “The company has known of this for some time and has been lining up a replacement. Expect an announcement soon.”

Update: Fishbowl LA spoke with L.A. Weekly publisher Beth Sestanovich, who said, “There are no internal candidates in the building.” The site is also reporting that calendar writers Siran Babayan and Liz Ohanesian have been laid off.