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It was less than a year ago that the Los Angeles Times surprised readers by doing away with its long-lived local news section. Today it's back, sort of — in the form of LATExtra, the section created to hold later news than the artificially early new print deadlines can handle. In order to give the section some meat, local news that doesn't merit the front page has been moved back there. Except, just to keep readers on their toes I guess, the local columnists — today, Hector Tobar — remain on page two of the front section. But late world and national news? That will go in the new local section. Obits and weather? They are in the new local section, but editorials and local opinion are still in the front section. Business? That still has its own section, except on Mondays — and on those days one of the Business section's leading features — Company Town — moves to the Calendar section. On Sunday? Local news will be in a section called California, not in LATExtra. Got all that?
At least for today, sports seems to have all the scores — there's a lot of concern at the paper about being able to include late scores, especially during baseball season and playoffs. (The Olympics in Vancouver will be a test, but at least they are in the same time zone.) The Times' pages also shrunk today by an inch of width, which seems to work. The changes are accompanied by some flakkery about the Times going to a 24-hour newsroom. The Readers' Rep has all that.
Previously on LA Observed:
Memo: LAT prepares for latest reduction in content
LAT's new section mae already taken...
California or Business?