Media

Memorial Day media notes: Moves, paywalls, Trump and more

By Kevin Roderick | May 30, 2016 10:18 PM

I might start doing a weekly media notes roundup, as it feels like fewer and fewer local media developments merit a full post in the age of Twitter and Facebook. And pulling together a whole column of media notes more often isn't really working for me right now. Here are some items I've been holding onto, starting with in the LA Observed family.

boom-cover-spring2016.jpgJon Christensen, our columnist, has stepped down from one of his many other pursuits, as editor of Boom: A Journal of California, to pursue an opportunity with UCLA's new Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies. He will have more on that later I suspect. Boom's spring issue includes an interview with the LAT's Christopher Hawthorne about Los Angeles, and has Colin Marshall as guest editor. The new editor of Boom, a quarterly published by UC Press, will be Jason Sexton.

Also from in the LA Observed house, our emeritus contributor Jenny Price will receive a prize for her Our Malibu Beaches app from the Westside Urban Forum on June 3. And columnist Bill Boyarsky is a finalist for online journalist of the year in the LA Press Club awards for his work at Truthdig. And I mentioned earlier that Sara Catania is now an editor at Zocalo.

And more from the mediasphere.

  • A memorial service for KPCC host Steve Julian was held Saturday in the theater at the Ace Hotel downtown. Here is the eulogy given by his wife, Felicia Friesema. Julian died of brain cancer on April 24. Facebook

  • Dateline NBC correspondent Josh Mankiewicz and Anh Tu Dang, chief executive of a home healthcare business in Orange County, met in a T.S.A. line at LAX and have gotten married in a wedding officiated by LA media figure Mark Thompson and covered in the New York Times, with photos by the NYT's LA photographer, Monica Almeida. Is that meta-media enough for you? “She is not looking to litigate every cup of espresso,” Thompson says of the bride.

  • For weary rank-and-filers at the Los Angeles Times, a survivor’s mentality has set in, says Poynter's James Warren. "By my count, since the former Tribune Company bought the then-Times Mirror Company in 2000, the newspaper has had seven publishers and six editors. Yup. Count the publishers and editors who were on duty when Tribune arrived and it's a total of 14." Nobody said much to him about the fledgling Michael Ferro-Patrick Soon-Shiong adventure. Poynter

  • Soon-Shiong's sudden involvement with Tribune Publishing reminds a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist of the LA billionaire's previous role with toymaker Jakks Pacific. And not necessarily in the good way. Column

  • Tribune Publishing CEO Justin Dearborn is moving to Los Angeles with the help of $262,000 in moving expenses, temporary housing and a rental car for up to four months. If this whole play with the future of the LA Times thing doesn't work out, he gets $75,000 to move back home to Chicago with Ferro. Politico

  • Disney Bans LA Times Reporter From ‘Frozen’ Stage Premiere. The Wrap

  • Former LA Times assistant foreign editor Paul Feldman, who took last fall's buyout, is now with FairWarning as a staff writer for the Pasadena-based nonprofit investigative reporting shop.

  • Former LA Times City Hall reporter Catherine Saillant and her sister are launching a line of Downtown LA inspired t-shirts, including a Times building design. HistorictotheCore

  • Ex-LAT national correspondent Maria LaGanga is covering the presidential campaign and the Trump phenomenon for the Guardian.

  • Wall Street Journal editors and reporters were reminded to be "fair" to Trump, shortly after owner Rupert Murdoch made his endorsement known.

  • Have Female Journalists Ended the Boys-on-the-Bus Era of Campaign Reporting? "No one can say for sure how Clinton ended up with a traveling press pool made up almost entirely of women, but it is a remarkable shift in political journalism." Vogue

  • Does local TV news love the whole Trump thing or what?:
    • Politico Media has dropped its paywall and established a new free landing page. Leading the page tonight is The fall of Salon: How How a digital trailblazer and progressive powerhouse lost its way.

    • The Bakersfield Californian has dropped the web paywall. "We’ve come to the conclusion that giving everyone free and open access to most of our content is the best way to connect members of our digital audience with each other, and with our advertisers." Bakersfield.com

    • Buyouts and another digitally motivated staff refocus are coming to the New York Times. Poynter

    • With lessons learned from Google, the Washington Post has brought its page load speed down to milliseconds. Poynter

    • Josh Tyrangiel is being promoted at Vice Media to oversee the company’s entire news division, as part of a reorganization that will see around 15 Vice News digital producers, writers and editors laid off in New York and Los Angeles. Politico

    • How fake news sites frequently trick big-time journalists. CJR

    • doug-kriegel-campaign.jpgFormer NBC 4 reporter (and the station's last Sacramento bureau chief) Doug Kriegel is running for the state Assembly in the Valley against incumbent Matt Dababneh. Campaign website

    • Summer hiatus: All Los Angeles County beaches are off-limits for weekend location filming through Sunday, September 11th.

    • Now the alleged abuse of children in Hollywood must be confronted and investigated. Salon

    • The forgotten Dust Bowl novel that rivaled "The Grapes of Wrath." Smithsonian

    • Here's the list of finalists for this year's LA Press Club awards, to be handed out June 26 at the Biltmore Millennium. There were a record number of entries, the press club says. AP photographer Nick Ut will receive the lifetime achievement award and the club says that Kim Phuc, the Vietnamese girl he photographed fleeing a napalm bombing, will attend.

    • Ex-digital journalists are coding for the federal government at 18F. Nieman Lab

    • championlahosts.jpgKCRW DJ Anthony Valadez and musician-singer-DJ Novena Carmel co-host a biweekly online radio talk show "Champion City Radio" on London-based NTS. "Each episode we are joined by a special guest artist or creative that’s shaping the LA scene." Site

    • Chicago columnist Phil Rosenthal explains the Vin Scully retirement thing to his city: "Those who know Scully only from his network broadcasts may have no idea how good he truly is....Appreciate him now. Scholars will be studying him forever." Chicago Tribune

    • Chris Dufresne, formerly of the LA Times, on the the (rapid) rise and (free) fall of Baylor football.

    • Keith Goldstein, KCSN news director for nearly 30 years and SPJ/LA 2015 Distinguished Journalist, died May 18 at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center.

    Some media people tweets


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