LAT's "readers' rep" is leaving paper

Jamie Gold worked in the Readers' Representative's office at the L.A. Times for ten years, since 2001 as the main liaison between readers and the newsroom "on questions of accuracy, fairness and bias." Editor Russ Stanton explains what he is looking for in a replacement. He says Gold decided to leave the paper, so it's unclear if her exit is part of the fairly large newsroom reduction (via buyouts and layoffs) that staffers expect to hit next week. The buzz is that several staffers who lose their jobs will be invited back as contract workers, at lower pay and without benefits, to begin once the calendar year turns over on Dec. 31 — which echoes the two-tiered employment model that got the paper in legal trouble in the decade before Tribune took over ownership.