Baltimore City Paper has hired Evan Serpick as editor, according to an announcement on Facebook:

Serpick comes most recently from Baltimore Magazine, where he served as senior editor, helping to direct the magazine’s coverage of politics, education, healthcare, and crime. Before that, he served as associate editor of Rolling Stone and a correspondent at Entertainment Weekly, and contributed to a wide range of publications including The New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, and Spin. Serpick grew up in the Baltimore suburbs before relocating to New York City after high school. He returned to Baltimore almost four years ago to work at Baltimore magazine and raise a family in his hometown.

“I grew up reading City Paper, thinking it was the coolest publication in town,” says Serpick. “It still is, and I couldn’t be happier to be affiliated with it.” The new editor adds that he’s happy to get back to covering the arts on a regular basis, as he did at Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, while also continuing City Paper’s tradition of investigative reporting, and covering stories that other publications miss. “It’s really a perfect distillation of my interests,” he says.

City Paper publisher Jennifer Marsh hired Serpick after an extensive search that included candidates from Baltimore and around the country. “Evan is really the perfect editor for City Paper,” she says. “He has vast experience covering the arts, on both a local and national level, and he has great instincts as an editor.”

Both Marsh and Serpick say that City Paper will roll out some changes in the coming months, including a redesign, but want to hold off on announcing any details.

Serpick replaces longtime editor Lee Gardner, who left to become senior editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education.