13,500 words on Chandler

Tomorrow's printed Los Angeles Times obituary on Otis Chandler will run over five to six pages and be one of the longest the paper has published. It is now online and runs more than 13,500 words, with bylines by the late David Shaw and Metro reporter Mitchell Landsberg. Editor & Publisher has some background on how news of the former publisher's death got around:

In recent days, however, Times staffers were informed that Chandler's condition was worsening, Landsberg said. Tom Johnson, the former Times publisher and ex-CNN president, had been in touch with the paper as a Chandler family spokesman, Landsberg said. He said the paper arranged to have Johnson inform the paper as soon as possible following Chandler's passing, and for a shorter obit penned solely by Landsberg to be used on the Web if needed.

Chandler died at 4 a.m. PDT today. Within an hour, Johnson called Landsberg at home and gave him the news. "I was sound asleep," Landsberg recalls. "I called Jon Thurber, who called one of the Web site editors who put it up [online] from home."

Landsberg said he did about five minutes of updating this morning from his home computer to finalize the short version, which posted at 5:40 a.m. PDT. He also said the paper alerted the Associated Press and put the short version out over the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post news service.

This morning: Otis Chandler