Ex-LAT publisher Downing on list to run Oakland schools

Kathryn Downing, the CEO and publisher who presided at the L.A. Times during the Staples Center/Times magazine fiasco, is on the short list of candidates to be Oakland schools superintendent, the East Bay Express reports. Downing was in charge on Spring Street when the paper agreed to split revenues from a special issue of the Sunday magazine with Staples Center in 1999. The new arena was the sole subject of the issue. It was a highly unusual and suspect partnership, and the LAT staff held her to account in heated confrontations. As soon as the Tribune Co. took over the paper, she was gone. Most recently, she graduated from the Broad Center for Superintendents, a program of Eli Broad's foundation.