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In the forum at the Herald Examiner alumni site, Saul Daniels has posted a link to a sad but interesting window into Los Angeles newspaper history -- the L.A. Times reports on the final months of the HerEx in 1989. There are especially revealing and sometimes poignant pieces by former Her-Ex columnist Ben Stein, who wrote a reflection for the Times, and Times writers Al Martinez and John Balzar. Tom Rosenstiel, then the LAT media business reporter, did some good fast analysis. I'm not among those who deify the Her-Ex -- don't buy the myth that it was a great newspaper, not even in sports -- but it is missed in the city.
Stein wrote then:
The Herald had a sense of humor. In its headlines, in its cartoons, in its Page 2 in its early days, the Herald genuinely made readers smile. The people who wrote the Herald understood that in a world where there is an incurable contagious disease, legions of homeless, 10 gang killings per week and human beings selling their children for dope, readers have also got to have a chance to smile. They understood that news is not just man bites dog, but that man often is a dog. In its last years, this sense of humor often became tinged with rage, but it still set a standard of sorts.