Archive: Media future

Entries in this category going back awhile
 

KCET and PBS SoCal agree to merge

kcet-rehearsal-control.jpg The station that used to be the PBS flagship in Los Angeles — KCET — and the current flagship — PBS SoCal, or KOCE — are going to save themselves and combine in a "merger of equals."

Endangered SoCal papers plead for your help to continue

ocr-ocr-4thestate-0415-001.jpg In a surprising set of weekend pieces, the editor of the SoCal News Group and each of his papers call on readers to support local news. Or else.

A reporter says farewell to his newspaper home

larry-altman-magic.jpg Larry Altman leaves the Daily Breeze after 28 years, much of that covering murder and mayhem. "For the most part, I loved being a reporter, but the job came with so much sadness and stress."

Deep layoffs began Monday at SoCal News Group

breeze-photo-desk-osier.jpg Tom Hoffarth, the longtime Daily News sports columnist, says he is one of 10 sports staffers to lose their jobs. The Breeze lost all but one photographer, per a report.

Read the memo: LA Times top editor warns staff about union

latimes-bldg-from-corner.jpg "Here are some other facts you may want to consider as you decide whether or not to unionize."

LA Weekly sold to mystery buyer and into uncertain future

laweekly-grim-sleeper.jpg The venerable free Los Angeles alt-weekly has been dished off by owner Voice Media Group.

LA Times gets a top editor with nothing but questions

lewis-dvorkin-2013.jpg Lewis D'Vorkin has never run a newspaper and brings no Los Angeles experience to the table. At Forbes he increased web clicks and gave advertisers more influence.
la-raza-raided-maria-varela.jpg Daily News photographer takes to the streets. Visiting critic blinded by the light. Media notes and obits. More PST:LA/LA. Selected tweets.

Marty Baron warns of what's ahead for the press

marty-baron-sarah-ellison-v.jpg The Washington Post editor known for the film "Spotlight" doesn't scare easily.

Tronc sale to Gannett could be imminent

michael-ferro-yt.jpg Ken Doctor reports that a deal may be announced as soon as Monday, over the oposition of LA billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Sue Laris puts Downtown News up for sale after 44 years

dtnews-gary-leonard.jpg Weekly newspaper has chronicled the downtown boom all the way along.

Is Ferro looking to escape his own troncosphere?

ferro-screen-grab-cnbc.jpg Ken Doctor hears that Tronc chairman Michael Ferro may be considering his options.

New York Times unveils a California newsletter

nyt-newsletter-grab.jpg California Today has news from the NYT, the LA Times and other media outlets and is written by Ian Lovett of the LA bureau.

Patrick Soon-Shiong buys into Tribune Publishing

Patrick_Soon-Shiong_wikipedia.jpg He becomes the second largest shareholder, vice chairman of the board, and Michael Ferro's defense against a takeover by Gannett.

Tribune Publishing slides toward parody

michael-ferro-yt.jpg Ferro's secret plan to monetize his new toy includes LA Times bureaus in Lagos, Moscow and Mumbai. But nothing for LA or California.

Sadly for LAT, this might be worst Tribune yet

michael-ferro-grafic-chicago-mag.jpg Ferro might be the illegitimate offspring of Sam Zell and former Freedom Communications CEO Aaron Kushner.

Beware: Ferro has magical plans for LA Times

michael-ferro-yt.jpg More revenue than you've ever seen. Artificial intelligence. Revolutionize the strategy. Piece of cake.

Change of plans: Freedom papers going to Digital First*

oc-register-bldg.jpg Tribune's high bid is rejected after a federal lawsuit and temporary restraining order. Now on to the judge to decide.

Justice Dept. files lawsuit to block Register sale to Tribune

latimes-building-from-above.jpg The civil antitrust lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to block last night's auction results.

Tribune Publishing wins OC Register bidding*

oc-register-bldg.jpg LA Times parent puts up the most money, but questions remain.

U.S. throws wrench into LAT's bid for the Register

ocregister-newsroom-nyt-ma.jpg A letter from the Justice Department warns of antitrust concerns if Tribune Publishing were to acquire Freedom communications at auction.

Bidding for OC Register is a 3-way showdown

oc-register.jpg Digital First Media's offer is chosen as the stalking horse bid. Read the memo.

Tribune and Digital First bid for the OC Register

ocregister-newsroom-nyt-ma.jpg A third bidder may yet join the auction but a sale could close by the end of the month.

Davan Maharaj named publisher too of the LA Times*

davan-maharaj-320.jpg The editor since 2011 will be the first joint editor-publisher of the LAT possibly since the era of General Harrison Otis. He's the fourth publisher in two years.

Sunday LA Times section front will change color in the light

lat-oscars-cover.jpg The Los Angeles Times is experimenting with this Sunday's print Calendar section — that is the day of the Academy Awards ceremony and TV show. The cover images of...

Jose Antonio Vargas and the LA Times agree to break up

jose-antonio-vargas-michael-conti.jpg His #EmergingUS seeks to raise $1 million in 60 days in a new partnership with Beacon.

Next step into digital news age by LA Times

latimes-bldg-from-corner.jpg The "news and enterprise hub" will become the nerve center of the newsroom, geared to chasing the top news of the day for the web.

Editor memo: Hiring and refocus are on at the LA Times

davan-maharaj.jpg "It’s time to push ahead with the reorganization," Davan Maharaj writes. The Times also announced a new hire for the Dodgers beat.

'Let's not pretend this is anything but sad,' LA Times memo says

latimes-sign-sideview.jpg Memo confirms that DC reporter Richard Serrano is leaving, details staff moves and announces that openings in Europe, Beirut and Las Vegas will be filled. Plus more.

LA Times sale rumor comes from Rupert Murdoch

latimes-from-2ndstreet.jpg Murdoch's Friday tweet about Eli Broad being close to acquiring the Times set off a media scramble. "Could well happen," Ken Doctor concludes.

OC Register seeks bankruptcy protection

Thumbnail image for laregister-prototype.jpg The last shoe drops from the Aaron Kushner era. The Register and Press-Enterprise will go on normally but new ownership could be on the way.

Grantland site killed by ESPN

grantland-grab.jpg It's effective immediately. Bill Simmons calls callous treatment of staffers "simply appalling."

Bill Dwyre first LA Times columnist to say he's going

bill-dwyre-fb.jpg Former sports editor announced to horse racing writers that he is retiring. Plus: Updates on the buyout and the T.J. Simers trial.

Columnist signs off: 'Keep reading your newspaper'

timm-herdt-fb.jpg Ventura County Star political columnist Timm Herdt, moving on after 31 years of Wednesday columns, pleads the case for print.

Austin Beutner at Columbia Journalism School (video)

austin-beutner-columbia-gra.jpg After listening to Beutner make his case now a couple of places, I'm starting to think that his firing as publisher of the LA Times might turn out to be a real tragedy for the paper.
beutner-reliable-sources.jpg Austin Beutner makes a weekend appearance on CNN's "Realiable Sources," and KPCC examines if Eli Broad bought the LA Times.

BuzzFeed newsroom: 58% women and 68% white

buzzfeed-editorial-pie.jpg "We now have more women than men working at BuzzFeed," Jonah Peretti says on his blog. They also are less white than last year.

NPR news audience dropping and aging

npr-west-front-room.jpg It's not just print newspapers and TV news that are losing their audiences to age and digital platforms.

Valley and Sacramento push back at Beutner firing

austin-beutner-coastalcc.jpg Two more letters to Tribune Publishing ask for a locally run LA Times. Plus: Joe Mathews writes Beutner was building a media-political entity that could be the future.

Deputy managing editor shifts to digital at LA Times

latimes-com-front-grab.jpg Scott Kraft, a former foreign correspondent and national editor, will "identify, shepherd and polish the top stories of the day" for the Times website.

Soon-Shiong also now interested in buying LA Times

soon-shiong-forbes.jpg Report is that LA's richest person is "seriously considering" a bid but has not contacted Tribune. Not that the Times is even for sale.

LA Times editor: We must 'accelerate our evolution,' drop some news*

davan-maharaj.jpg Davan Maharaj memo declares it's a new, more digital era. Those considering the upcoming buyout will read it closely.

LA Times turmoil: the view from New York and Chicago*

latimes-bldg-from-corner.jpg Tribune Publishing chief Jack Griffin talks to the NYT and his own Chicago Tribune. Beutner blamed for poor financial performance.

Trib's top shareholder drawn into fight over LA Times

latimes-mirror-bldg.jpg Bruce Karsh has held discussions with Eli Broad and others, says Crain's Chicago. Also a new examination of the LA Times' not-good situation by Newsonomics' Ken Doctor.

Chicago imposing deep new cuts on LA Times, report says

Tribune Pubishing wants to reduce editorial expenses by about $10 million and 80 positions. That's a big hit.

Beutner's email access blocked, so he exits on Facebook

beutner-thoughts.jpg "I am not departing by choice...Tribune Publishing has decided to fire me. I will continue to root for you to succeed."

BuzzFeed looking at big expansion to Arts District

ford-factory-shorenstein.jpg Flush with new cash from NBC Universal, BuzzFeed is reported to be looking at the former Ford Model T factory across from Stumptown Coffee on Santa Fe Avenue.

Beutner unveils grant-funded education push at LA Times

lat-education-grab.jpg Timed to today's start of school in LAUSD, the Times is "rededicating itself to coverage of teaching and learning" with Education Matters and new staffers.

LA Times parent company puts on the happy face

Thumbnail image for latimes-building-aerial-tig.jpg Memo from Tribune Publishing boss celebrates the first year out from under the old Tribune.

Sasha Frere-Jones joining LA Times as cultural critic

sasah-frere-jones-twitter.jpg The editors call Sasha Frere-Jones "one of the leading voices of our time on music, language and culture." He won't report to any of the arts or culture editors, however.

Black Twitter beat at LA Times has people talking

dexter-thomas-twitter.jpg NPR, the Washington Post and Digiday are among the media outlets covering the LAT decision to hire a new reporter to engage with blacks who tweet.

LA Times adds three, including 'Black Twitter' reporter

latimes-sign-sideview.jpg S. Mitra Kalita, one of the paper's three managing editors, announced additions to the audience engagement team.

BuzzFeed releases long-discussed news app

buzzfeed-news-app-grab.jpg "We know a lot about the 25 million people who visit BuzzFeed News each month," says the site. "We know young people are into news."

Beutner 'a regional news leader to be watched nationally'

austin-beutner-coastalcc.jpg News industry analyst Ken Doctor likes the moves Austin Beutner has made at the Los Angeles Times, including the acquisition of U-T San Diego.

LA Times finally gets hold of San Diego

latimes-building-aerial-tig.jpg Tribune Publishing buys U-T San Diego and installs Times publisher Austin Beutner as publisher there too. Otis Chandler's dream realized?

Pulitzer winner Rob Kuznia explains his move to USC

breeze-winners.jpg "Print journalism, especially at the local level, is a scary place to be right now."

LA Times brings on new chief flack from Obama White House

johanna-maska-obama-wh.jpg Johanna Maska goes back to 2007 with Obama and has just stepped down as director of press advance. She's the LAT's new veep for marketing and communications.

LA Times also adapts meetings to the digital news cycle

leonardbillboardtimes.jpg Read the memo: Editors now meet at 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., with the focus the website more than the next day's front page.

LA Times partners with Jose Antonio Vargas on new race section

jose-antonio-vargas-cnn.jpg Journalist who is famously undocumented will create a new section of the LAT website on race, immigration and multiculturalism.

BuzzFeed to interview President Obama on Tuesday

ben-smith-fb.jpg If you need another clear marker that BuzzFeed is a news operation with reach and not just a website with lists, this is a pretty good one.

KCRW wants your proposals for 'vulnerable populations' project

kcrw-logo-blue.jpg Journalist or team selected will spend a year reporting on LA's most vulnerable populations. Deadline to apply approaches. Radio experience not required.

Sports Illustrated lays off all staff photographers

si-cover-2015-01-21.jpg The magazine will turn to freelance and I guess contract photographers. Here are the final six SI photogs.

Editors and staff of The New Republic resign en masse

thr-masthead-annotated.jpg Most of the remaining editors and contributing writers of The New Republic resigned today, following yesterday's departure of editor Franklin Foer and literary editor Leon Wieseltier.

Déjà vu: LA Times under Beutner restores California section

Thumbnail image for latimes-building-aerial-tig.jpg Part two of the Times will go back to being the California section starting tomorrow. It's part of focusing on local news, says publisher Austin Beutner: "LATExtra only means something to those who work in the printing plant."

Baquet recrafts the New York Times masthead

Thumbnail image for nyt-newsroom.jpg New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet has announced his first big remake of the organizational ranks of the paper, choosing to replace his old job of managing editor with four deputy executive editors and the new position of creative director. Reads the memo.

The Atlantic will re-absorb The Wire

the-wire-grab.jpg After five years as a semi-independent website and a year under the name The Wire, the site is going back under the banner of The Atlantic.

La Opinión converts to tabloid, redesigns site

la-opinion-cover-91614.jpg The Spanish language daily newspaper rolled out an all-new look this week. There's now a section of English language news on the website.

Will the Daily News et al be sold?

daily-news-box-200.jpg This morning's memo from Digital First Media CEO John Paton doesn't confirm or deny. Let the speculation continue.

KCET to share channel going forward with KLCS

Thumbnail image for kcet-rehearsal-control.jpg The two stations will continue to operate separately but they will "share a single, over-the-air broadcast television channel," while auctioning off unneeded bandwidth and splitting the proceeds.

LA Times to air documentaries exclusively on DirecTV

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for latimes-sign-sideview.jpg The first video under a new Los Angeles Times Originals banner debuts Sept. 13. Noted: Ex-publisher Eddy Hartenstein founded DirecTV.

LAT's Robert J. Lopez leaves for communications job at Cal State LA

robertjlopez-fb.jpg Robert J. Lopez has been an investigative reporter and on the cops and street action beat for the Los Angeles Times for 22 years. An early convert to digital journalism, he's also a prolific tweeter of breaking news @LAJourno.

Napa quake first in CA where we actually know who woke up

jawbone-napa-quake-grafic.jpg Turns out that almost everybody in the Napa and Vallejo areas got up when the quake hit at 3:20 a.m. and half of those stayed up the rest of the night. Based on data, not anecdote.

LA Times asking readers about a smaller format paper

Thumbnail image for latimes-sign-sideview.jpg The survey asks readers to react to marketing messages that would announce a switch to a "new, compact size" but the LAT flack says it's just marketing research.

Santa Barbara news startup Mission & State to shut down*

injunction-protest-missionandstate.jpg The Knight Foundation and the Santa Barbara non-profit behind the investigative news start-up have agreed that "unfortunately...the Mission & State experiment must come to an end."

A sign of the print apocalypse?

newsbox-apocalypse.jpg News boxes observed, spotted on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana.
aaron-kushner-usc.jpg NYU academic Clay Shirky reduces the battle for journalism to a fight between realists and nostalgists. He ranted at Ken Doctor and Ryan Chittum for not calling B.S. on Aaron Kushner, and they respond.

Kushner spars with Larry Mantle: 'We are growing' *

kushner-spitz-kppc.jpg Even with his image as the guy who figured out how to make newspapers work wobbling, the Register's Aaron Kushner declined to make his case with numbers that could be checked.

Times to unveil web redo, and Register begins delivery

lat-com-new-front.jpg LATImes.com is finally getting the design makeover it has needed for years — see how Eddy Hartenstein flacks it. Plus the LA Register (remember it?) will now deliver to homes.

Let's call Kushner charming, confident but guarded (video)

zocalo-newspapers-kushner.jpg The Register's Aaron Kushner sat for a Zocalo panel on the future of LA newspapers and explained his bet on print. But details have to wait for the April 16 launch of his new LA Register.

LA Register sets a date for its 'unique' coverage: April 16

Thumbnail image for laregister-prototype.jpg Freedom Communications "also will roll out more than a dozen community newspapers across Los Angeles County in coming weeks," the Register announces.

Deluxe Laboratories to close Hollywood film processing shop

deluxe-film-lab.jpg Deluxe has been a major player in the production of movies on film and in digital post-production. But film is fading away.

Hope is dwindling for a non-profit news operation in LA *

Thumbnail image for latimes-building-aerial-tig.jpg Edited post: An earlier effort has quietly closed down for lack of interest among those who could finance a new website, writes Leo Wolinsky, the former LA Times managing editor. He notes that KPCC's hunger for grants also sucks up non-profit money that might otherwise go into creating new, better local news sites.

Possible list of Register staffers headed north to Los Angeles

mid-valley-little-league.jpg The list is unconfirmed but looks real, and indicates some interesting coverage priorities. Check it out.

Look who has been spotted in City Hall

city-hall-face.jpg There has been a new species of journalist spied recently at Los Angeles City Hall. That would be reporters for the as-yet-unseen LA Register.

New on public radio: An investigative reporting show

reveal_logo_600.jpg KCRW on Saturday aired the new pilot for "Reveal," a show from the Center for Investigative Reporting and Public Radio Exchange. Featured are the heroin pipeline to Chicago, teenagers in solitary on Rikers Island and the reality behind that movie credits bug about no animals being harmed. Listen inside.

Kushner also speaking at USC Annenberg

aaron-kushner-usc.jpg We're starting to see Orange County Register owner Aaron Kushner reach out in Los Angeles in advance of launching his new LA newspaper. He'll be in the journalism school at USC next Tuesday.

Hot ticket: Aaron Kushner to talk about LA newspapers

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for aarson-kushner-ocw.jpg The topic of the Zócalo Public Square panel scheduled March 10 at the Petersen Automotive Museum is "What kind of newspaper does Los Angeles deserve?"

Los Angeles Register starts up its social media presence*

laregister-prototype.jpg The Los Angeles Register now has a Twitter feed and a Facebook page, to go with the paper's first promotional ad and what looks like a prototype cover. A feature on Nixon and Agnew?

Volokh Conspiracy bloggers sign up with the Washington Post

eugene-volokh-ucla-mag.jpg UCLA Law professor Eugene Volokh — he graduated from college at age 15 — takes his popular center-right law, culture and politics blog to the Post, which loses Ezra Klein.

Los Angeles Times loses Ken Bensinger to BuzzFeed

buzzfeed-la.jpg Times editors joke that BuzzFeed is "the online juggernaut known for hard-hitting reports such as 'The 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions.'†But they regret losing Bensinger.

Kushner's Register play: 'Many people think we are a little crazy'

ocregister-newsroom-nyt-ma.jpg New York Times media columnist David Carr becomes a skeptic about the great OC Register experiment. It's the layoffs and the lack of convincing specifics about the move into Los Angeles.

Ugly news website screen grab o' the day

lat-grab-1-3-14.jpg It's another one of those days when the LA Times says to hell with even trying to make the website attractive or newsy.

Register names LA editor, Kushner again vows to be for 'free markets'

Thumbnail image for oc-register.jpg Aaron Kushner's year-end cheerleading note to the staff in Orange County includes the news nugget that the newspaper will sell its Santa Ana home. The editor of the LA Register will be an LA Times and Register veteran.

Rep. Waxman expresses concern about LA Times future

waxman-letter-lat.jpg Rep. Henry Waxman posted a letter today to Tribune CEO Peter Liguori asking for more information about the company's intended spinoff of its newspapers and how it will affect the Los Angeles Times. Plus: Two more LAT retirements.

Register owners lay off 42 at Riverside Press-Enterprise

Most of the jobs lost are in sales, finance and circulation departments that duplicate functions also provided at the Orange County Register. No “frontline journalists†would be affected, Aaron Kushner says obliquely.

Newsonomics of Register's LA play yet to be determined

aarson-kushner-ocw.jpg News industry analyst Ken Doctor talked to the Register's Aaron Kushner and came away with some more details (and questions) about the strategy behind the Orange County newspaper chief's upcoming move into Los Angeles. Plus: Kushner is on KCRW and I discuss the move in tonight's LA Observed segment.

Kushner unveils plans for Los Angeles Register

Thumbnail image for oc-register.jpg The leak was accurate: the Orange County Register is planning to expand into Los Angeles County. The new paper will publish seven days a week after the first of the year, and they are thinking big.

What will Aaron Kushner tell the Register staff this week?

oc-register.jpg One source says the topics will include expansion into Los Angeles.

LA Times now a renter in its own building

Thumbnail image for latimes-building-aerial-tig.jpg The Tribune Co. took concrete steps on Tuesday to formally spin off its newspapers from the parent company and, some would argue, cast them adrift from the more profitable TV stations until someone comes along to buy the LA Times and other papers. But Times reporters and editors have already gotten a new look at life as a corporate orphan, and it isn't reassuring.

New York Magazine to cut back to every 2 weeks

nymag-arod-cover.jpg New York Magazine has been slowly tapering back from being a true weekly, putting out just 42 issues this year. But in March they make it official.

LA Times sells out its front page to a Disney movie

lat-112613-front.jpg Only three news stories and no Column One. The rest is a garishly unattractive Disney ad for "Frozen."

ABC7 adds 8 pm news hour -- on Orange County channel

marc-brown-abc7-grab.jpg KABC Channel 7 will begin airing a live one-hour newscast in primetime — seven days a week at 8 p.m. — in January. But there's a twist.

Kushner deal for Press-Enterprise goes through

Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Orange County Register, today completed its purchase of the Riverside Press-Enterprise for $27.25 million.

LANG staffers will have a way around the pay wall

asner+at+daily+news.jpg "For our current print subscribers nothing changes," says the publisher in an email to the staff. "As an employee you will have complimentary access."

Read the memos: Tribune and LA Times to reorganize, make more cuts

Thumbnail image for latimes-building-aerial-tig.jpg Several functions at Tribune's newspapers will be combined with new executives and about 700 jobs cut. CEO Peter Liguori says the cuts will be mostly not in newsrooms.

Pay wall to go up at LA News Group papers

daily-news-box-200.jpg The Daily News and the rest of the LANG papers will get a metered pay wall as soon as Wednesday, an edict from the parent company. Details to come.

David Folkenflik and me on Rupert Murdoch for Zócalo (video)

Folkenflik-and-Roderick-600x467.jpg The media correspondent for NPR calls Murdoch “the most influential and important media figure in the English-speaking world." We talk about Murdoch's motivations, the trial of his former executives in London and the LA Times.

Kushner sued over disputed funds from Register purchase

oc-register.jpg Former shareholders in Freedom Communications allege that buyer Aaron Kushner has wrongly held back $17 million from the 2012 purchase deal that put him in charge of the Orange County Register. He says they defrauded him on the deal.

Dodgers owner looking at LA Times purchase

dodger-owners-garyl.jpg Mark Walter, controlling owner of the Dodgers as chief executive of Guggenheim Partners, says he is exploring the prospect of buying the Times. It's not clear if he has taken any real steps or if the price would be right.

Piolín is taking his act to SiriusXM

piolin-promo.jpg Eddie Sotelo, the popular Spanish-language radio host who goes by Piolín, will next do his thing on satellite radio. Listen for him in the fall.

Patch closures and layoffs to roll out over week

But oddly, during a 100-minute conference call in which AOL chief Tim Armstrong said he's now in charge, he fired someone for taking out a camera.

Read our lips: New York Times is not for sale *

nyt-newsroom.jpg Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and vice chairman Michael Golden write they were stunned that the Grahams sold the Washington Post. On behalf of the Ochs-Sulzberger family, they wish Jeff Bezos luck but say it won't happen in New York.
lat-obama-ad-grab.jpg This morning's memo from LAT president Kathy Thomson, about a forthcoming web redesign, sounds like it's preparing the staff for more ad innovation: "We rethought how we present our journalism online and how advertising is integrated."
From Marc Ambinder, the Los Angeles-based contributing editor at GQ and The Atlantic.

How Boston Globe sale could affect the LA Times

latimes-from-broadway.jpg An unhappy losing bidder is San Diego's Doug Manchester. Does this make him a serious contender for the LAT?

'SoCal Connected' on KCET may not be finished yet *

Thumbnail image for kcet-control-room.jpg The former team of the award-winning news series has mostly dispersed, but KCET is actively raising support for a sixth season with a tentative launch date in January.

Digital now drives the graphics department at LA Times

graphics-form-times.jpg The new "director of data visualization" informs the newsroom that requests to create digital graphics for the Times website will have priority over graphics for the print newspaper. "Digital first" is the catch phrase — and the lede if you are still a paying customer of the Times.

NYT's Jim Risen vows to take prison over revealing source

james-risen-grab.jpg A divided federal appeals court in Virginia ruled today that Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporter Jim Risen must testify in the criminal trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA staffer who the government charged under the Espionage Act with leaking classified material to Risen for his 2006 book, “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration." A previous judge had said the First Amendment protects reporters such as Risen.

Tribune names 'president of real estate,' could sell Times home

latimes-building-aerial-tig.jpg The Los Angeles Times headquarters in downtown LA will be owned separately from the newspaper — or sold — under the Tribune's new strategy. That makes the paper worth even less to a prospective buyer.

LA's incredible shrinking Sunday newspaper *

lat-front-71413.jpg An LA Observed reader who has been watching the Los Angeles Times for decades — some of that time from sensitive perches inside the building — says today's Sunday LAT was the smallest in his memory. He found 60 pages of content, or 136 pages less than in the New York Times he also received at home here in SoCal.

LA Times buy not a priority, says a Koch brother

charles-koch-wichita.jpg Buying Tribune newspapers is not on the front burner -- but possible, says the head of Koch Industries.

Register formally announces Long Beach expansion

long-beach-register-proto.jpg Everybody else was talking about it, and now the Orange County Register is ready to spill the beans: the paper is starting a Long Beach edition to publish six days a week starting Aug. 19.

KPCC has more staff photographers than Chicago Sun-Times

kpcc-photo-grab.jpg While the Sun-Times cuts all its shooters, the NPR station has three staffers who mainly take pictures. There is also a new visual blog they like to call "public radio for the eyes."

California Watch drops catchy name, goes geo-ambiguous

welcome-to-calif.jpg As the Center for Investigative Reporting, the newsroom in Berkeley will take a more national focus and cut back on the number of stories it undertakes. California Watch has been one of the most successful nonprofit journalism startups in the country.
latimes-building-from-above.jpg The New York Times weighs in today on the fear and loathing among some in Southern California over the possibility that the libertarian Koch brothers might buy the Tribune company's newspapers, gaining control of the Los Angeles Times. "No formal bids have been submitted," the story notes.

Another newspaper home goes on the market

riverside-pe-bldg.jpg The Riverside Press-Enterprise is the latest California newspaper to decide that it no longer needs the cost and hassle of its own building. Riverside County has agreed to buy it for about $30 million.

KCET lays off about 22 staffers, announces reorganization

Thumbnail image for kcet-rehearsal-control.jpg The merger last fall of Los Angeles public television station KCET with Link Media became more real on Friday. CEO Al Jerome, who took KCET out of PBS a few years ago, appears to remain.

SoCal Connected statement: We might be back

Thumbnail image for kcet-rehearsal-control.jpg KCET says that while it doesn't look good for a sixth season of "SoCal Connected," it still might happen. "SoCal Connected depends on public funding and we don't know at this time what that funding will be."

OC Register adds a Washington bureau now

oc-register.jpg The jury is very much out on whether all this new investment at the Register is sustainable. But for now, the happy times continue. Owner Aaron Kushner will be on 'SoCal Connected' on Friday.

Today's scary newspaper statistic

newspaper-ad-graph-atlantic.png Derek Thompson, the business editor at The Atlantic, gleaned this from today's Pew report on the State of the News Media. In 2012, newspapers lost $16 in print ads for every $1 earned in digital ads. And it's getting worse not better.

Kushner's comfort afflicted a bit by Marc Cooper

Thumbnail image for aarson-kushner-ocw.jpg Aaron Kushner, the hands-on owner of the Orange County Register, is still embroiled in conversation over his comment that the old quip about a newspaper's role — to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable — is out of step with his vision of the paper. The latest exchange is with Marc Cooper, the longtime alt-weekly and The Nation rabble-rouser who has been a journalism prof for several years at USC Annenberg.

Reporters agree infotainment is here to stay, even in politics

Michael-Cieply-Charles-Latibeaudiere-Aaron-Brown-Joe-Mathews-zocalo.jpg Last night's Zócalo Public Square panel took up the question of what celebrity-driven news and websites like TMZ are doing to news reporting. And oddly enough there was a top producer from TMZ on the panel.

Writer discovers that Wet lives on — in Paris

wet-paris-kurcfeld.jpg How's this for strange: Michael Kurcfeld was checking out an exhibition on imaginary languages in the Pompidou Museum in Paris recently when he came across a story he wrote in 1979 for the long-dead Los Angeles mag Wet: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing.

Online Journalism Review relaunched by USC Annenberg

ojr-newhome-screenshot.jpg The Online Journalism Review fell off my radar, and I suspect that of other news types, a few years ago. Now USC Annenberg has given it a new look and a new view of its role.

Variety drops daily paper and pay wall, names 3 co-editors *

variety-sign-300.jpg The other shoe fell today in the evolution of Hollywood trade Variety under new owner Jay Penske. One of the new co-editors is Claudia Eller, a 20-year veteran of movie coverage at the LA Times. Nikki Finke says Penske lied to her.

LA Times to cut TV grid, squeeze sports pages

latimes-from-broadway.jpg The LA Times has been warning readers for more than a week that the daily primetime television schedule will disappear from the Calendar section next Tuesday. Now comes a memo explaining significant cuts in the space devoted to sports.

Register's 'Aaron Quixote' and his curious quest

aaron-quixote.jpg Longtime Orange County Register editor Chris Smith tries to make sense of the Aaron Kushner phenomenon that is making over the OC newspaper and giving hope to unemployed journalists across the LA area. Smith writes in the new issue of Orange Coast magazine.

LA Youth to publish final issue, ending 25 years

save-LAYouth.jpg Regrettable news from Donna Myrow, who founded L.A. Youth as a newspaper written by and for Los Angeles teenagers 25 years ago. It has been a struggle to keep the paper going in recent years. A desperate fundraising pitch last year bought some more time. But a note in the upcoming February issue will announce that L.A. Youth is closing down. Here is Myrow's note in the final issue.

Aaron Swartz, tech prodigy was 26

aaron-swartz-boingboing.jpg Aaron Swartz, who as a teenager helped create RSS, then went on to become a folk hero for Internet users who believe information should be free online, was found hanged in his New York City apartment. He had faced a federal trial on charges of wire fraud and computer fraud in connection with the downloading of millions of documents from an MIT database.

Al Jazeera acquires Current TV, will rebrand channel

al-jazeera-logo.jpg Al Jazeera on Wednesday completed a deal to take over Al Gore's seven-year-old Current TV, which is based in San Francisco. A new channel, Al Jazeera America, will be based in New York, the NYT says. "Current will provide the pan-Arab news giant with something it has sought for years: a pathway into American living rooms."

NYT avalanche story gets 3.5 million page views

nyt-to-the-peak-grab.jpg The New York Times package reconstructing the stories around an avalanche in the Cascades has been called by some the best designed big web story ever. That encompasses a lot of great work, with much competition, but let's agree it's in the conversation and may be the best thing the NYT has ever done on the web.

TMZ denies that it wants permit for a drone

tmz-faa-drone-article-hollywood-sign-3.jpg In a post rife with punnery, celebrity gossip site TMZ says that contrary to a report that originated in the San Francisco Chronicle, it has no interest in using airborne, unmanned drones to gather news.

FCC grants Tribune waiver for KTLA and LAT

Federal regulators gave the go-ahead for Tribune Corp. to continue operating TV stations and newspapers in five markets where it holds both, removing a major obstacle to the Chicago company...

Bold design break for LAT overdose series

lat-front-nov11-12.jpg The Los Angeles Times went to the red ink on Sunday's front page for the opening story in a series on prescription drug overdose deaths.

Murdoch in 'early talks' about buying LA Times

latimes-from-broadway.jpg Murdoch isn't alone: Austin Beutner, the Register's Aaron Kushner and San Diego partisan Doug Manchester all are expressing interest in the paper, which could be sold soon after bankruptcy ends.

KCET merges with Link Media, creates new entity

kcet-sign+lao.jpg I'm not sure I get the full impact of this, but KCET has announced what it's calling a merger with Link Media, the non-profit media company in San Francisco that produces LinkTV. Their new non-profit creation will be called KCETLink. No big changes on the air for now.

Mike Fleming seeks to reassure his colleagues at Variety

variety-sign-300.jpg In reporting that his employer has now acquired his former journalism home at Variety, Deadline film editor Michael Fleming took a moment for some personal words. Plus: The Wrap claims Finke 'having a major tantrum.'

LAT's Lakers blogger jumps to newly digital LANG

Mark Medina has been overseeing the Lakers blog at LATimes.com, one of the site's biggest draws, for the last couple of years.He will now be covering the Lakers as a best writer and multimedia reporter for the Los Angeles News Group and its papers.

Do you have the stuff to blog for Atlantic Cities?

For them it's about the quality of the content, the most precious commodity in the competition for readers' brains.

Register hiring three investigative reporters now

oc-register.jpg The hiring spree continues at the Orange County Register. A listing has gone up at the Investigative Reporters and Editors jobs page for three "top-notch investigative reporters in order to expand its watchdog/investigations team."

LA gets another Latino journalists group *

CCNMA-Latino Journalists of California has picked up a competitor in an LA chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Patrick Goldstein's final Big Picture column for LA Times *

Patrick Goldstein doesn't explain the end of his film column, but he seems to be defending how he went about it. The piece begins "When I began writing this column...

Register can fill 25 newsroom positions, editor says

oc-register.jpg New details on the hiring that owner Aaron Kushner's team at the Orange County Register has authorized. Sports editor Todd Harmonson, who last week put out the word that he...
oc-register.jpg Not just a paywall, but an emphasis on print. Many fewer blogs. No push to mobile phones. Possible new fulltime food writer and film critic — just like in the old days. And more, via OC Weekly.

Center for Investigative Reporting to partner with Univision

The center in Berkeley will announce tomorrow a partnership with Univision to jointly produce investigative stories for Spanish-speaking audiences in the United States and Latin America.

Gold medal in online newspaper info graphics

nyt-graphic-usain-bolt.jpg The New York Times graphic comparing Usain Bolt's run in the Olympics 100-meter race to previous winners — back to 1896 — is something to see. Watch 'One Race, Every Medalist Ever'

WSJ puts the bad in badminton

"NBC paid over $1 billion to broadcast the London Olympic Games. The Wall Street Journal paid...less than that."...

Things looking bad for KPFK, Pacifica

kpfk.jpg The Pacifica Foundation's head office has notified the network's five local radio stations, including KPFK here, to prepare for deep cuts in budgets and staffing. The latest alarms at the perennially strapped stations were apparently prompted by an audit of the books that concluded there is “substantial doubt†that Pacifica can "continue as a going concern.â€

Shrinking Freedom Communications notifies 66 of layoffs

The affected employees are not on staff at the Register but at other Orange County units of the parent company.

Nora Ephron, writer and director was 71

Nora-Ephron-New-Book.jpg Ephron grew up in Beverly Hills, made a name for herself as a journalist in New York, got into screenwriting via collaboration with then-husband Carl Bernstein on a version of "All the President's Men," and grew into what People magazine calls today "one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood as the creative force behind such blockbusters as 'You've Got Mail,' 'Sleepless in Seattle' and 'When Harry Met Sally.'"

Downtown News to ask for voluntary payments from readers

dtn-cover.jpg In Monday's edition, founder Sue Laris will tell readers that advertising has fallen out and the 40-year-old weekly needs $5 a month from readers. For now no editorial staffing changes are planned.

The American Prospect survives its funding crisis

the-american-prospect-cover.jpg The liberal policy and politics magazine in Washington with the LA connections says it received a grant that pushed recent donations over $1.2 million, ensuring continued operation for now.

Lifted the print LA Times lately?

lat-front-62012.jpg Today's front or main news section of the Los Angeles Times has just 12 printed pages. That includes the two pages devoted to editorials and op-ed — and with the only content on page A2 a Steve Lopez column.

Subtract another film critic from the club

Stephanie Zacharek will be laid off as chief critic at Movieline on July 13. The news, reported earlier by Matt Singer at IndieWire, has set off fresh concern about the future viability of film criticism as an actual career, or even as a job.

'On Shaky Ground' wins another honor for California Watch

calif-watch-icon.jpg Last year's California Watch series detailing failures in the way that the state ensures the seismic safety of public schools was singled out for a special prize at this weekend's national convention in Boston of the journalism group Investigative Reporters and Editors.

USA Today sports jobs: specialization now the rule

Dave Morgan, the former LA Times and Yahoo sports editor who has just overseen a massive change in personnel at USA Today, explains that it was about getting the right kinds of journalists in the right places for the future.

Now who's going to cover the foundations?

LAT-extra-section.jpg The Ford Foundation's new practice of paying for reporters at ad-driven, profit-motivated corporate media — in this case, the Los Angeles Times — poses all kinds of issues and angles yet to be examined. But one issue in particular comes to mind for Joe Mathews, the former Times reporter who is now an author and journalist for several foundation-backed organizations. Go on

Ford Foundation to fund new LA Times reporters *

latimes-east-face-tighter.jpg This tweaks the model for how to pay for big-city newspaper journalism. The Los Angeles Times, still one of the biggest newspapers in the country and by far the most potent in California, has accepted a $1 million grant to hire new reporters on selected beats. The money comes no strings attached, says the memo from editor Davan Maharaj. Read the memo
lara-logan-cbs-grab5712.jpg It's not just Lara Logan. The presence of Anderson Cooper probably helps too. But it's an interesting ratings trend. "The oldest newsmagazine on television," writes Brian Stelter in the New York Times, "might have figured out how to halt the aging process."
eli-broad-book-cover.jpg Eli Broad speculates in ""The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking" — with a foreword by Michael Bloomberg — that the LA Times will be for sale once the Tribune's bankruptcy closes and says he's interested again. Broad is also now on Twitter and Facebook and has started to blog.

Read the memo: LA Times celebrates its circulation numbers

bill-nagel-lat.jpg "Our Daily circulation results, which now reflect inclusion of Hoy, showed The Times’ largest reported increase in more than a decade. Our total Sunday circulation was up for the third consecutive ABC Statement and reached the highest level reported since September 2009."

A sour prognosis on KCET's future

kcet-sign+lao.jpg There is no way, "absolutely no way, that KCET can survive as a television station," says the former head of the California Community Foundation.
amanda-hesser-mug.jpg Amanda Hesser, the former New York Times food writer who made a cameo in the movie "Julia and Julia," writes on her current website, Food 52, that she used to always give encouragement to would-be writers who contacted her. Then she felt she had to stop feeding, so to speak, their hopes. It's about the market for writers.

Huffington Post wins Pulitzer Prize for national reporting

Talk about a new era at the Pulitzers. The Huffington Post just won its first Pulitzer Prize, in the national reporting category for David Wood's 10-part series on the lives of severely wounded veterans and their families. "We are delighted and deeply honored by the award, which recognizes both David’s exemplary piece of purposeful journalism and HuffPost's commitment to original reporting that affects both the national conversation and the lives of real people," said Arianna Huffington. Politico's political cartoonist Matt Wuerker, who is from Los Angeles, wins too. Click for list of winners.

Investigative reporting comes to YouTube

The Center for Investigative Reporting in Berkeley just announced that it will be launching an investigative news channel on YouTube with $800,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. "One of the goals of this partnership will be to raise the profile and visibility of high impact story telling through video," says CIR executive director Robert J. Rosenthal.

Register's Angels mob shows results

Those plans we told you about last month to swarm the Angels' season opener with a "news mob" turned out just fine.

Parents of Bay Citizen and California Watch officially merge

The boards of the Berkeley-based Center for Investigative Reporting and the Bay Area News Project voted today to merge their organizations.

Kevin and Mark on 'Deadline LA' today

Topics included the LA Times, the LA Weekly, Jonathan Gold and more.

LA Times puts up a web paywall *

The Times also kills its standalone Food, Health and Home sections and puts that content together in a new Saturday section.

Kudos to California Watch for Polk Award

Emergency-sign-cw.jpg California Watch, the Bay Area-based non-profit, only started up in 2009, but it employs the largest investigative team of any journalism operation in the state and keeps spinning out noteworthy investigations.

A non-profit news model doesn't work out

Chicago News Cooperative, an online alternative to the Tribune and Sun-Times run by former Los Angeles Times editor Jim O'Shea, will shut down later this month.

Here's an idea: old media should be allowed to collude

news-boxes-lat-dn.jpg The best hope for newspapers online is a temporary, narrow anti-trust exemption to let publishers collude on a web pay wall, says a former reporter now at UCLA Law School.

Huffington Post planning web TV 'network' to rival CNN

Arianna Huffington and AOL chairman Tim Armstrong have been dropping hints about the Huffington Post Streaming Network, or HPSN.

Capitol Weekly suspends print edition, goes web only

The Sacramento-oriented weekly published by the York family of Malibu announced today that Thursday's ink-on-paper edition will be the last. The publication will continue on the web.

Read the memo: L.A.'s Latino Patch sites launch

The note is from Marcia Parker, West Coast Editorial Director for AOL's Patch websites.

Reality hits home at Voice of San Diego

Award-winning site lays off four, cuts budget and refocuses the core mission.

Videos of the events at UC Davis

The national focus of the Occupy activities has suddenly become the University of California at Davis, showing the massive power (once again) of YouTube to capture relatively unfiltered events and disseminate them widely to great effect.

Should reporters tweet under their own names?

Coverage of the police crackdown on Occupy Wall Street protest and the media who cover the scene (and tried to cover the arrests) has spurred new discussion of one of the trickier questions posed by new media.

MediaNews' boss looks toward end of print newspapers

daily-news-box.jpg The recently installed CEO of Dean Singleton's MediaNews chain of newspapers isn't shy about saying that his papers — a group that takes in the Daily News, Daily Breeze and a bunch of other smaller papers in SoCal and NorCal, including the San Jose Mercury — will be changing.

City Maven marks one year

MavBODY_HIGHres-93x300.jpg The news site has been a welcome addition from day one, reporting on City Hall moves and politics without rants, hidden agendas or anonymous comments.

KCET unveils first five shows from new partnership

Here's what KCET has come up with to kick off its teaming with Eyetronics Media and Studios.

Venture in new media: reporting on adult day care

health-reporting-seniors.jpg USC Annenberg's Center for Health Reporting has partnered with eight ethnic media outlets to gauge the impact of the impending closures of more than 300 Adult Day Health Care centers.

Lessons on sustainability for news startups

bay-citizen-logo.png A new Knight Foundation report makes a case study of eight of the biggest local news startups across the U.S., including Voice of San Diego and The Bay Citizen in San Francisco

IRS makes nonprofit journalism wait

Here's a story of frustrating government bureaucracy — and it could affect dozens of promising media startups.

Feds vow to prosecute media that advertise medical pot

California Watch says federal prosecutors are preparing to target newspapers, radio stations and other media outlets that advertise medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

Times 'expecting a really bad fourth quarter'

latimes-east-face-tighter.jpg Los Angeles Times veteran pressman and blogger Ed Padgett says the forecast for fall is bad, and worse in the long run if you like the printed paper.

Fox 11's new news show the right lead-in for TMZ

liz-habib-fox11promo.jpg Fox 11 is flubbing its golden opportunity at 5 p.m. by going with an even dumber form of TV news than celebrities, animals and car chases: pre-planned "outrage" by the...

Blogdowntown becomes part of KPCC

As of Monday, the Downtown blog will be under the banner of KPCC, the NPR station in Pasadena.

PBS station in San Diego to unveil intelligent news show

KPBS in San Diego plans to launch "Evening Edition," a weeknight local news and analysis show, on Sept. 26.

Daragahi, Petruno, Jones latest names to leave L.A. Times

daragahi-grab.jpg A marquee foreign correspondent, the markets columnist and the soccer writer are moving on, while talk heats up about a rival L.A. news operation.

KCET previews its first fall schedule

KCET has posted a two-minute video listing the shows it will offer in the fall, including Roy Firestone's "L.A. Tonight."

Singleton's Bay Area papers 'rebrand'

The Oakland Tribune, a fixture for decades, will now be grouped in with four other papers under one masthead: the new East Bay Tribune.

Heisler on Tribune, Zell and the L.A. Times

Former NBA columnist's comments on earlier sports deadlines are interesting,

Los Angeles Review of Books picks up axed LAT writers

Susan Salter Reynolds and Richard Rayner will continue the book columns that the Los Angeles Times recently dropped in its cost-cutting of freelancers.

Why people still subscribe to newspapers

chart3.jpg Ad Age survey provides some encouragement for the industry.

Breslin offers young male journos a chance this time

susannahbreslin_136.jpg Last month, blogger Susannah Breslin offered $100 to the young female journalist who came up with the best guest post for Breslin's Forbes blog, Pink Slipped.

KCET gets props for airing Al Jazeera

The New York Times media blog says Al Jazeera trails BBC in the ratings but beats both the Japanese and Israeli newscasts.

L.A. Public Media, LA>Forward suspend operation

Radio Bilingüe announced today it is halting Los Angeles Public Media and LA>Forward "for the foreseeable future."

Banksy does good, but Guetta loses big time

Banksy will sponsor free admission at The Geffen Contemporary every Monday for the duration of the Art in the Streets exhibition. Thierry Guetta, the other star of "Exit From the Gift Shop," takes a big loss in court.

New Boyle Heights paper is reported by teens

The 20-page bilingual tabloid, distributed to 22,000 homes in Boyle Heights, aims to educate residents about the culture, personalities and news of this vibrant neighborhood.

HuffPost to go multi-cultural, add Spanish in SoCal

New officers named plus plans for Spanish-language Patch sites in Southern California.

How the Osama bin Laden announcement leaked out

The New York Times says that the first authoritative tweet that "seemed to confirm" the news was posted at 10:25 p.m. Eastern Time by Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Patch wants you to blog for them

All the AOL Patch local news sites across the country have put out the call for bloggers to post on their community's site.

Blogging for Forbes: it's all about ratings *

susannahbreslin_136.jpg Bloggers for Forbes aren't rewarded financially for improving their writing, breaking some hard-to-get news or making an especially salient or persuasive argument — on anything about putting out a quality product. They are rewarded strictly for attracting unique visitors.

Loyola Marymount observes the lay of the L.A. land

layoftheland-e1301379988555.jpg I took part this afternoon in the third annual LAy Of The LAnd Writer’s Conference put on by Loyola Marymount University’s Creative Writing Program and Graduate English Department.

Making public radio a little more private, one station at a time

Bloomberg Business Week looks at the grand ambitions of Southern California Public Radio, the parent entity behind KPCC.

California Watch wants your story

calif-watch-icon.jpg California Watch, the Northern California-based non-profit investigative newsroom, will have a staffer on the Eastside Monday morning to chat about potential stories.

LAFD TV is on the air

lafd-tv-brian.jpg The fire department is streaming live tonight from the desk of public information office Brian Humphrey.

'Marketplace' and NYT collaborate on your money *

money-through-ages-graphic.jpg "Marketplace Money" from American Public Media and the New York Times jointly produced a package of stories and advice columns about managing your money as you get older.

By one measure, L.A. Times is up

By one way of looking at combine print and online local readership, the Los Angeles Times came in second to the New York Daily News.

Blogdowntown suspends print weekly

bdownown-print-feb32011.jpg Blogdowntown's weekly print edition hit the streets last August, and it stopped regular publication in February.

Reporter posts AOL 'request' to be nicer to movie *

jake-alexia.jpg File this in the corner of your mind where you're a least a little concerned about editorial standards at the new AOL.

KCET says enough viewers are hanging in

al-jerome-knbc.jpg Ratings are down by half compared to a year ago and donations by former members have also dropped off, but KCET chief executive Al Jerome says that the station's broadcast...

Final bids for Register's parent company due

Tribune, MediaNews Group, and private-equity firms Gores Group and Plaitnum Equity are all said to be circling with Thursday's deadline to bid on Freedom Communications, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Talk about a non-profit L.A. news venture

Tom Unterman, the venture capitalist and former chief financial officer of Times Mirror who engineered the company's 2000 sale to Tribune, has been having discussions around town about starting a non-profit journalism venture that would partner with the L.A. Times on investigative and other projects.

First look at AOL as HuffPost, via Kara Swisher

aol-huff-mockup.jpg Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal posted the page, as well as scoring a video interview with Arianna Huffington and AOL's Tim Armstrong before the announcement on Sunday...

AOL to buy Huffington Post and put Arianna in charge

Arianna Huffington will take control of all of AOL’s editorial content as president and editor in chief of a newly created Huffington Post Media Group, under the deal reached Sunday night.

SoCal newspapers likely to join up, LAT media columnist says

James Rainey argues in his Saturday column that with the corporate owners of the Times, Register, Daily News and San Diego Union-Tribune each facing their own financial squeezes, the inevitable best hope is for them to stop competing.

Murdoch's 'The Daily' to hit iPads on Wednesday

These are some of the Los Angeles-based journalists involved, plus some pre-reactions from New Media observers.

Google, Twitter launch tweets from Egypt without net access

From CNET: Designed specifically for those on the ground in Egypt unable to communicate via the Internet with the outside world, Speak to Tweet allows anyone with a voice connection...

Americans watching more TV than ever, Nielsen says

Total viewing of broadcast networks and basic cable channels rose to an average of 34 hours per person per week.

Kung Pao Kitty closing

kung-pao-kitty-patch.jpg Friday is the last day for the Hollywood Boulevard restaurant and bar that the new AOL Patch Hollywood says helped clean up a blighted stretch of the street.

RIP Kodachrome, 1935-2010 *

kodachrome.tshirt.jpg The last rolls of Kodachrome color film will be developed today at Dwayne's Photo, a small family business in Parsons, Kansas.

Two more Patch sites debut

Sherman Oaks and Echo Park start up this week, with familiar names involved.

Another day, another Patch site

Today brings word of a new Patch news site in the Belmont Shore-Naples area of Long Beach, edited by a former L.A. Times reporter.

Sheriff's Dept. latest to bypass the media

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department is joining the trend of public agencies and elected officials publishing their own news.

Radio news vet to try new niche

kvb-grab.jpg Longtime radio reporter Michael Linder plans to launch a Venice Beach-based Internet radio outlet after the first of the year.

The story behind Zocalo

Nice piece in Sunday's L.A. Times on the success of Zócalo Public Square and the people behind the discussion forum, led by founder Gregory Rodriguez.

Defending the pay wall

The Los Angeles Daily Journal already has the highest pay wall around separating its stories from the Internet, and it just got higher.

New health reporting model 'has legs'

The California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting at USC Annenberg has been around for a year now as a new model for health news.

SEIU investigation names health charity

An SEIU union investigation concludes that the chief executive of Central City Community Health Center has secretly used the charity's money to pay expenses of his own for-profit businesses.

LA Observed on KCRW: my take on KCET

KCET's new independence needs to include local programming that makes people mad — more Huell Howser folksiness and Sam Rubin hosting old movies won't cut it, I argue in my...

LAT markets against bloggers *

Screen-shot-2010-10-07-at-3.23.47-PM.png This house ad for the Los Angeles Times awards season coverage is unintentionally funny, given that there are bloggers in this city with more experience and higher standards than some...

Howard Kurtz leaves Post for Daily Beast

Even the Washington Post's looongtime media writer has been seduced by the siren call of online fame and riches. Kurtz will be the Washington bureau chief for the Daily Beast.

Deli's sandwiches no longer a work of Art *

art-at-deli-grab.jpg Art Ginsburg is leaving Art's Deli to his children, but look who reported the story for AOL Patch.

Daily News has a new crime database too

The Daily News today unveiled Under Arrest in L.A., which it calls "a list, updated daily, of felony arrests made by the Los Angeles Police Department over a 30-day period." Searchable by name, crime and other factors.

The local downside of AOL Patch

The AOL news sites are posing a threat to long-established but lesser-funded local news outlets around the L.A. area, says an LA Weekly story by Tibby Rothman.

Washington reporter leaves frustrated by Obama, media

Ken Silverstein, the Washington editor and blogger for Harpers who used to be an investigative reporter at the D.C. bureau of the L.A. Times, is moving on to do investigative reporting for Global Witness and take a fellowship with the Open Society Institute.

L.A. Times launches new online crime maps

The Times has been working with the LAPD and sheriff's department to ensure good data and today launches a new feature mapping crime across the city and a substantial part of the county.

Mayhill Fowler quits HuffPost, wants to be paid *

Mayhill Fowler was the Huffington Post election blogger who got a lot of attention during the 2008 campaign for recording Bill Clinton's three-minute rant about Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum and Barack Obama's critique of "bitter" small-town Americans.

Pasadena Now goes to the outsource card again

Three years after he got national attention and local criticism for outsourcing some local coverage of Pasadena to reporters working in India (and then in-sourced again), James McPherson says his new Pasadena Now web video channel will also hire in Asia.

Encyclopedia of Wikipedia edits on Iraq war

wikipedia-iraq.jpg James Bridle has published every edit to the Wikipedia entry for the Iraq War, from the article's creation in December of 2004 to November 2009, as a 12-volume set.

California Watch declares itself a success

California Watch has been at it for a year now, and says its 11 full-time reporters are "by far the largest investigative team operating in the state."

New 'content exchange' for freelancers and publishers

bill-momary.jpg Ebyline, which launches tomorrow after several months in stealth phase, hopes to connect freelance journalists with publications that want their stories. Ex-LAT ad people are key players.

Time clocks now an LAT fixture

New memo on how the time clocks idea is going to work at the Los Angeles Times.

Register reporters to become more, uh, visible

The Orange County Register is going all the way, decreeing that reporters and columnists shall have new mug shots taken that will run with every story.

How a California Watch story gets out

Editorial Director Mark Katches explains in a blog post how a recent California Watch project on the shrinking school day came to appear in newspapers, on the air and on websites around the state.

For those who like their politics verbatim

California Watch's site called Politics Verbatim compiles the actual words spoken by the candidates for governor in a searchable database.

New site presents news from multiple angles

Qewz is a technology-driven slice on the day's news, vowing to gather various angles on big stories and include left, right, middle, upper, lower, etc.

California Watch hires three more reporters

The non-profit newsroom arm of the Center for Investigative Reporting in the Bay Area has added Joanna Lin, a former reporter at the Los Angeles Daily Journal and Los Angeles Times, plus Pulitzer winner Ryan Gabrielson and reporter Susanne Rust.

Local news startup in Orange County shuts down

The Orange County Local News Network was a partner of the Los Angeles Times, working out of the Times' offices in Costa Mesa and doing hyper-local coverage.

Metblogs planning to shut down May 31 *

Metblogs, the global network of local blogs that began here as blogging.la, is closing down due to lack of financial support. Farewell message from Sean Bonner and Jason DeFillippo.

'Off-Ramp' producer moving to Bay Area news startup

jrblog-queena-400.jpg Queena Kim, a producer at KPCC's "Off-Ramp" since the show went on the air in 2006, is heading to the Bay Citizen.

Witness LA and Spot.Us team up

The LA Justice Report will be a joint effort of Witness LA, journalist Celeste Fremon's blog, and the Spot.Us project that helps readers fund journalism they support. "The idea is...

HuffPost burned by its own Facebook journalism *

After the arrest of Faisal Shahzad in the Times Square firebomb attempt, the Huffington Post quickly grabbed a photo off Facebook and said it was him. It wasn't.

Any ticked-off crossword fans?

last-dance-crossword.jpg Turns out the crossword puzzle the Los Angeles Times ran in today's Calendar section, titled "Last Dance," was a repeat of the puzzle that ran two Sundays ago.

Todd McCarthy joins IndieWire

todd-mccarthy-mug.jpg Less than two months after losing his longtime gig as chief film critic at Variety, Todd McCarthy has signed on with IndieWire to do film commentary on a blog they are calling Todd McCarthy's Deep Focus.

LAT to add paid links to stories, blogs *

The Los Angeles Times will begin selling e-commerce links in selected stories and blog posts — but not in news stories or columns — as "both a reader service and a revenue opportunity for the company," editor Russ Stanton announced to the newsroom in a memo that also changes the comment moderation policy.

HuffPost coming up on five years

Media analyst Ken Doctor parses the Huffington Post numbers at Nieman Journalism Lab.

Co-op for ex-LAT staffers expanding across U.S.

The Journalism Shop, created last summer to help unemployed former Los Angeles Times journalists find freelance gigs and other work, is opening up to experienced reporters across the country.

Rainey urges calm about The Entryway

devin+kara.jpg Now comes L.A. Times media columnist James Rainey with his take on The Entryway, the project where two white journalists (soon to be one) are embedded with an immigrant family near MacArthur Park.

Talk about your hyperlocal news

fiat-brava.jpg The news blog of the Glendale News-Press and its sister papers has a story up about a local car reaching 500,000 miles — and it's the car driven by the husband of the managing editor of the La Cañada Flintridge paper.

Advice to baseball writers

ESPN's Bill Simmons has written an interesting column explaining the conversion of an old-school baseball writer (him) to the modern sabermetric analysis embraced by an increasing number of major league...

California Watch hiring again

The investigative reporting venture based up north is looking to add another enterprise reporter and a new position for them, public engagement manager.

Now begin The Entryway spoofs

Ophelia Chong posts an item at her KCET blog on moving in with some women in the Valley, "so that I can better report back to my friends who refuse to go north of the 134 and west of the 405."

The Entryway responds to criticisms

The journalists who are living with a Mexican immigrant family near MacArthur Park posted some new FAQs tonight aimed at addressing some of the criticism directed at the reporting project.

New web reporting venture debuts in OC

Voice of OC, by some veteran Orange County journalists, plans to concentrate on hard news.

'The Entryway' spurs dismay and a response

Daniel Hernandez's post about the white journalists living with a Latino family near MacArthur Park has attracted a number of commenters who agree with him that it's a misguided and in some ways offensive project.

Criticizing the 'embedded in MacArthur Park' project *

devin+kara.jpg Daniel Hernandez, the former Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly staff writer now working for the LAT bureau in Mexico City, is not a fan of The Entryway.

LA Observed on KCRW: Media future

The recent onslaught of announcements about new ventures in local news media, leading with The Entryway around MacArthur Park — and my visit this week to a class at USC Annenberg — inspire today's LA Observed Friday commentary on KCRW. Keyword: optimism.

Variety looking to hire in New York

kingsthings-tweet.jpg Variety is "in search of a full-time NY-based reporter to cover finance and entertainment," Variety.com editor Chris Krewson posts on his Twitter feed.

Much activity in the media future sphere

Lots of interesting stuff going on, from the in-box in recent days.

NYT launches daily web newscast

The New York Times' new Timescast, hosted by former L.A. Times Washington and state editor Jane Bornemeier, will include coverage of the NYT's daily page one news meeting. Link...

KPCC has nearly 30 reporters, big expansion plans

A front-page story in the L.A. Times on the opening of KPCC's new studios in Pasadena says that next up for the NPR station is "a major expansion that its board of trustees hopes will make KPCC the hub of a regional constellation of public radio stations and a major source of news and information in Southern California."

Is the end near for Hollywood trades?

The New York Times sets up a piece examining the future of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter by saying the "feisty tradition of entertainment trade reporting and criticism...has been so severely tested in recent weeks that some wonder whether the entire era is drawing to a close."

Couple of investigative reporter jobs are open

California Watch is looking to hire two experienced investigative reporters to cover the environment and public safety. In addition to at least five years doing the job, the unit is looking for "a proven track record of delivering high-quality investigative and enterprise reporting projects."

Ex-Times reporters launch investigative unit

Myron Levin and Joanna Lin's nonprofit FairWarning.org plans to plans to investigate issues involving safety, health and corporate conduct.

Supes' discretionary spending comes under fire

Each member of the county Board of Supervisors gets $3.4 million a year to spend on pet projects and doesn't have to account for it to the public — or share much info at all, according to a Times story.

Actually, Variety restructures across the newsroom

Today's moves turn out to be about much more than dropping the chief film and theater critics, who have been asked to write as freelancers. Variety is restructuring its newsroom,...

On the death of serious film criticism

An essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education traces the history and decline of film reviewing in the face of competition from Internet critics. "If the traditional film critic was...

NYT invades L.A. by video screen

While the suits and editors continue to discuss internally how to gear up in the Los Angeles market, the New York Times on Monday takes over content on video screens in L.A. coffee shops and restaurants and in other cities,

Garza on the Los Angeles Public Media Service

oscar-garza-kcet.jpg The goal, as he tells KCET blogger (and KPCC reporter) Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, is to diversify the public radio audience.

AOL's Patch launches in Manhattan Beach

The Patch approach of hyper-local news hubs debuted today on the West Coast with the unveiling of a site in the South Bay.

Selden Ring Award goes to ex-LAT reporter

t-miller.jpg T. Christian Miller won for ProPublica stories on how insurance coverage for private contractors in war zones "had become a boon for companies and a disaster for those who relied upon it for treatment and death benefits."

More layoffs at Ventura Star

A few more editors and web people got the word today, according to staffers.

Iran bans Google mail

The government crackdown on Internet communication by Iranians now extends to a "permanent suspension" of Gmail service, in favor of a national email service for citizens.

News desk massacre in Ventura

Current and former staffers of the Ventura County Star are chattering on Facebook that the paper's entire news and sports copy desk was informed yesterday that their jobs are moving this spring to Corpus Christi.

Variety hiring on the web

Variety has a craigslist ad up looking for a part-time web editor (with one whole year of experience), prompting former Variety columnist Anne Thompson to tweet: "this after Variety laid...

Los Angeles magazine to unveil online 'CityThink' effort

Lord_110_Arroyo.jpg Los Angeles magazine, in the midst of its 50th anniversary year, is about to officially take the wraps off an ambitious effort to generate more conversation about the city's future. CityThink will be housed on the magazine's website and be supported by a new Los Angeles Magazine Foundation, which has seed money from the California Community Foundation.

Steve Jobs' dinner with NYT executives

steve-jobs-close.jpg None of the 50 top New York Times executives reportedly knew that their special guest at dinner last night would be Steve Jobs, there to wow them with the new Apple iPad and its meaning to the future of media.

Journalist teams with Barry Minkow to probe fraud

Former L.A. Times religion writer William Lobdell and ex-felon Barry Minkow have launched iBusiness Reporting to investigate inflated claims by public companies — paid for in part by short-selling stock in the companies they investigate.

Memo: LAT prepares for latest reduction in content

On Tuesday we begin to find out how well L.A. Times editors have been able to contain the damage from the latest management order to cut costs — by moving to some of the earliest news deadlines in town and trimming story lengths. Read the latest memo.

Check out the iPad demo video

ipad-demo-graphic.jpg OK, you've heard the hype and the early reviews of Apple's iPad. (Plus Mark's reports at LA Biz Observed. Now here's the official demo video.

Bay Area news startup names editor, rest still unclear *

jonathan-weber.jpg Jonathan Weber, the former Los Angeles Times tech editor who co-founded (and recruited me to join) The Industry Standard magazine a decade ago,will be the editor-in-chief of the new Bay...

L.A. Times loses another top reporter to ProPublica

The non-profit investigative reporting outlet ProPublica has grabbed Sebastian Rotella, a 23-year reporter at the Los Angeles Times who most recently was doing national security reporting in the Tribune Washington bureau.

Stimulus funds go to companies with spotty records

corpsgraphic.jpg Corporations with records of pollution violations, criminal probes and fraud allegations are sharing in the millions of dollars being doled out in federal stimulus funds, California Watch says in an investigation running in newspapers across the state today.

Now you can freelance about medicinal pot

Marijuana Business Reporter.com is looking for experienced freelance reporter/feature writers in Los Angeles to "interview dispensary owners and do general profiles/Q&A with other business professionals. Trade magazine reporting experience helpful....

Times' changes back to the future in some respects

Mark has the rundown over at LA Biz Observed on the latest Los Angeles Times restructuring to keep the place running. In closing the Orange County printing plant (and casting...

Breitbart kicks off Big Journalism

andrewbreitbart.jpg Los Angeles-based media impresario and culture warrior Andrew Breitbart launched his latest website.

How the parties funnel their political funds

laundrymain_0.jpg California Watch christened its website with a report on how politicians of both parties and their supporters routinely funnel money through county-level political party committees.

TMZ suckered by fake JFK photo

jfknot.jpg Even if the creased, black-and-white picture of John F. Kennedy on a boat with naked skinnydippers were real, TMZ went more than a little overboard.

Tuesday news & notes

Holiday week posting will be on the light side. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced a grant of $200,000 to The Huffington Post Investigative Fund, which has...

Spot.us goes after Prop. 13 *

The first story to benefit from collaboration with Spot.us Los Angeles is a report by the Garment & Citizen downtown that seems aimed at getting country clubs on the Westside...

Breitbart expanding into righty news

Andrew Breitbart's Los Angeles-based family of aggressively right-wing websites will soon grow by one. Big Journalism's target will be what Breitbart calls the "Democratic-media complex†and the stated goal will...

Greenberg on Editor & Publisher closing

EP credo.jpg Our editorial cartoonist Steve Greenberg used to draw for Editor & Publisher and reacts to its closing on his blog at Cagle.com. Excerpt: Sure, it was just a trade...

TJ will miss Editor & Publisher

TJ Sullivan has a nice piece at Native Intelligence on the essential role that the venerable Editor & Publisher played in his early years as an itinerant journalist in Ketchum,...

Fred Roggin's 'Filter'

KNBC's Fred Roggin is testing an online and digital-channel show called The Filter that may go on real TV over Channel 4 next year. Roggin has various observers and commentators...

Editor & Publisher shuts down

The chronicle of the newspaper industry has been around 1901. Kirkus Reviews, around since 1933, is also killed by owner Nielsen Business Media, which completed its sale of the Hollywood...

Variety tries pay wall again

This is at least the third iteration I recall, but Variety on Thursday will start charging again for some web content. Here's how the trade explains it: After clicking on...

NYT tech writer jumps to AOL

Saul Hansell will be Programming Director of AOL's new Seed.com., a content management platform expected to launch this month. He blogs about it....

New life for old newspaper stories

lakersbookcover.jpg Time Capsule Press was started last year by Narda Zacchino, a former top editor at the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and Dickson Louie, an ex-LAT and Times...

Doug McIntyre moves to page 1

dougmcintyrethumb.jpg The recently disemployed KABC talk radio host is now a front page columnist at the Daily News twice a week — Wednesdays and Sundays. There's even a little ad campaign...

27% of ex-LATers report health problems

In the second part of a survey of recently formered newsroom staffers at the Los Angeles Times, almost all say they have health insurance — but mostly due to COBRA...

Greenberg on his 'crappy anniversary'

Steve Greenberg, LA Observed's editorial cartoonist, posts at his Cagle.com blog about his year of underemployment since being laid off by the Ventura County Star. "I thought my position was...

AOL bloggers get their orders

A leaked email from an editor at AOL reveals how the service wants its blogger-journalists to get the job done. One way is to focus to an extreme on using...

New Hollywood site seeks writers

Hollywoodnews.com expects to launch in January with former Los Angeles Times film reporter Robert Welkos as the editor and Carlos de Abreu as CEO and publisher. Welkos posted about it...

Spot.Us names editor for L.A.

Anh Do, a former columnist for the Orange County Register and vice president of Nguoi Viet Daily News (the largest Vietnamese-language newspaper in the U.S.), will be the managing editor...

L.A. Public Media Service hires up

The new "radio and multimedia service directed to an ethnically diverse and underserved 25-40 year-old demographic" — funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and managed by Radio Bilingüe —...

Yaroslavsky as web news pioneer

zevblog.jpg That innovative new website for Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky that we told you about in May has gone live. It features a blog by Yaroslavsky and stories about county news and...

Bay Area gets another news outlet

What happens in a region when the dominant local newspaper starts to die? In the Bay Area, first the New York Times comes in with local pages, and starting tomorrow...

LA Observed on KCRW: Harvey Levin

harveylevinmug.jpg In today's radio commentary I argue we should all care about embarrassed cops obtaining the phone records of TMZ's Harvey Levin. The segment airs — as every Friday — at...

Levin takes to the radio

Following his toss-down of the gauntlet last night (reported first at LAO, I feel like saying), TMZ boss Harvey Levin guests tonight on "Which Way, L.A.?" to talk about the...

Harvey Levin to sheriff: Fight's on

Venting in depth for the first time about official prying into his personal phone records, TMZ editor Harvey Levin tonight called it an illegal abuse of power — "a brutal...

Shepard Fairey admits lying in AP case

hopeposterAB.jpg The Los Angeles artist says in a statement that he actively tried to conceal which photo he worked from in creating his Hope poster of Barack Obama. It was an...

He's going to Abu Dhabi

Former Inland Empire sports columnist Paul Oberjuerge, who blogged his own firing in 2008, finally got a job back in daily journalism — in Abu Dhabi. It grew out of...

Another local media bypass effort

In my post this morning on Jim Rainey's Times column about the local media crossover efforts we've been following, I forgot to mention one that Rainey left out. That is...

Looking at media bypass journalism

The LAT's media ponderer, James Rainey, catches up with and gives the once-over to three recently reported cases of a newsmaker hiring a journalist to deliver its news directly to...

USC Annenberg hiring 'senior writers'

The new California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting at USC Annenberg has an ad running for three senior writers — "three experienced, accomplished, self-starting journalists to report about the...

Bob Long's last day

Long checked out Friday as news director and VP at KNBC Channel 4. He's headed to Istanbul to teach a class in journalism ethics at Bahcesehir University. Long had previously...

Community journalism play expands to L.A.

David Cohn's Spot.us, which raises money from website readers to finance longer-form journalism, is opening in Los Angeles in association with USC Annenberg. He's looking for a managing editor. The...

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Make that apples in this case, as the offspring of two local writers make publishing deals. First, 19-year-old Emmett Rensin, son of LAO's own David Rensin, has made profitable use...

CA Watch readies story

California Watch, the new investigative reporting operation, will be coming out with its first piece tomorrow - an examination of waste and mismanagement in local homeland security grant spending across...

Jobs for journalists

Variety is advertising for an editor of the daily paper and for an online editor to run the website. Also, USC Annenberg is helping to recruit a project manager "as...

Anschutz adds another media arm

Billionaire Phil Anschutz's Examiner.com is acquiring the citizen journalism site NowPublic for about $25 million, according to paidcontent. Remember, back in June Forbes said that L.A.'s most publicly elusive major...

California Watch names its team

The investigative reporting operation launched to fill in where newspapers such as the L.A. Times don't go so much any more will announce on Monday its staff of 11 reporters,...

Top of the ticket

The female orgasm story from 2008 has made it to the number one spot on today's most viewed and most emailed lists at the Los Angeles Times website....

How online news traffic works

latmostviewed82109.jpg The #2 most viewed story on the L.A. Times website this morning is a health story from February, 2008 explaining the key to female orgasms is "how far a woman's...

Talking with those ex-LAT entrepreneurs

Scott Martelle and Brett Levy are the former Los Angeles Times journalists running The Journalism Shop, the new co-op in which they and a selected group of other ex-LAT staffers...

More ex-LATers try marketing

Couple of weeks ago it was former Los Angeles Times photographers starting a service to offer their freelance expertise. Now it's reporters and former associate editor Leo Wolinsky. "Highly skilled...

Investigative reporter gets a gig

The Center for Investigative Reporting received more than 600 applications for its new California Watch project. The winner, to be announced soon, is Lance Williams, who has been part of...

HuffPost looks for L.A. editor

The Huffington Post is moving ahead with its long-talked-about local pages for Los Angeles. The site has "yet to set a launch date but is actively looking for the right...

That's one way to get in the NY Times

Sunday's New York Times published a letter to that newspaper's public editor from the publisher of L.A. Youth, the paper run here by teenagers, commenting on a column about how...

Job: Latino-themed content chief

The formal title is Chief Content Officer, and the employer is Radio Bilingue. The project takes a little more explanation. A major new public media programming service in Los Angeles...

More doubt on Nikki Finke's millions

Sharon Waxman's report that Nikki Finke inked a $14 million deal to sell Deadline Hollywood Daily has yet to be confirmed by anyone on the record, and Finke declines comment...

24 journalists & bloggers arrested in Iran *

tehranlifephotog.jpg Life magazine says the Iranian photographer who submitted this photo of protests in Tehran is now missing and probably arrested. Here is a gallery of the photographer's work with...

News as endangered species

pomonacollegecover.jpg The current issue of Pomona College Magazine examines the future of news, drawing on journalist alums: Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times; Richard Pérez-Peña, who covers newspapers...

NBC to acquire football fan website

Mike Florio, the fan who started Profootballtalk.com eight years ago, hits it big. NBC will announce Monday that is acquiring rights to PFT's content and will run it at the...

Add one digger, take one away

The Center for Investigative Reporting named the editorial director for its new reporting initiative focusing on California: Mark Katches, the former editor who oversaw prize-winning investigations at the Register in...

Job description of today's reporter

The job skills and responsibilities sought in a new county government reporter for the Register in Orange County could be a template for how out-of-work journalists should market themselves these...

Ex-KCRW commenter un-laid off

Nick Madigan was axed as a reporter for Sam Zell's shrinking Baltimore Sun. Then several co-workers with safer safety nets volunteered to leave instead. Madigan stays. He used to do...

Skipping the media middleman

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky is adapting to the new media order by revamping his official website to be more newsy under the guidance of Joel Sappell, who used...

Follow up on 'The Scarecrow'

I've now read and thoroughly enjoyed Michael Connelly's latest book. In today's Times review, Tim Rutten calls "The Scarecrow" Connelly's best since "The Poet," and also the first novel to...

Nieman narrative journo confab is history? *

Author and journalist Scott Martelle blogs that he's been told that the annual Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism is shutting down. [* "Shutting down" was his original information, now revised...

Downside of smaller, more pressured staff?

I keep getting notes from readers about mistakes in the L.A. Times and on its website, including today's subhead gaffe saying the Hubble Space Telescope got new* telescopes rather than...

Upside to the downside at newspapers

Author Frances Dinkelspiel has noticed that ever since the San Francisco Chronicle laid off dozens of reporters, the number of author and artist features in the paper has gone up....

WSJ staffers told to be nice online

I don't know which of these ethics provisions are new, but among those that caught my eye is the rule that "motion picture rights to articles written by news staffers...

Michael Wolff: Papers should die

Michael Wolff continues his ongoing rant about newspapers at Newser, arguing that most papers have surrendered their niche anyway and that better means of doing their job are readily available....

Singleton to charge for some web content *

Hard to see how this would apply to Dean Singleton's barely breathing SoCal newspapers, but here's the memo explaining MediaNews' plans to come up with some premium content that readers...

LA Sketchbook: The Kindle

sgKindle.jpg More by Steve Greenberg Steve is the editorial cartoonist for LA Observed. Bio and email...

New news stream from NYT

Times Wire web page appears to deliver everything generated by the New York Times, in order and in one sentence plus a headline and link. The "river of news," says...

New Calif. investigative reporting arm

The Center for Investigative Reporting is launching a new statewide reporting initiative "to produce in-depth multimedia journalism specific to California and to engage the public on issues of critical importance...

Media tweet o' the day

A bit of snark this morning from L.A. Times media writer James Rainey: latimesRainey Getting ready for Kerry Senate hearing on future of journalism. I'm sure we'll have this fixed...

Remember when TV Week was in print? *

Mark has the goods at LA Biz Observed: TV Week is going online only. * Update: TV Week alum Michael Schneider blogs the history at Franklin Avenue. Also: Video story...

Dodgers react to Tony Jackson layoff

I've updated this morning's post about the Los Angeles Newspaper Group dropping its Dodgers beat writer. There's also this on the blog of Dodgers VP Josh Rawitch, who sits with...

Dodgers beat down to two fulltimers *

Tony Jackson, the Dodgers beat writer for the Daily News, has apparently been laid off, per KABC post-game show host Josh Suchon and chatter at SportsJournalists.com. Jon Weisman reacts at...

Media tweet o' the day

Where we chronicle how the mainstream media and other media-centric Angelenos are adapting to Twitter. LATimesfood Danger! Danger! I inhaled too quickly while scarfing my Aebelskivers and almost shot powdered...

Swine flu strikes the downsized newsroom *

A SoCal newspaper editor passed along this fable, saying it came from a friend at the Denver Post. But I don't actually know who wrote it. (Update below.) One could...

USC names its digital journalism trainees

Fifteen digital journalists from 10 states have been selected for the inaugural class of the Knight Digital Media Center’s News Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Local fellows are Julia Scott, who blogs...

Senior editor out at Daily News *

Oscar Garza came aboard as senior editor/content — basically the same as managing editor — last August. He was caught in today's budget cutting and leaves at the end of...

Guild asks Daily News staff to cut their hours

The newsroom guild at the Daily News has gotten the word about Friday's latest round of reductions — and asked its members to voluntarily reduce their hours in order to...

Speaker Bass hands out pay raises to staff

You know how state employees are being threatened with unpaid furloughs and salary cuts — and how Mayor Villaraigosa is asking city staffers to voluntarily give up some pay? And...

Shrinking Daily News to lose 3 more reporters

A photographer and a graphic artist are also expected to be laid off by the end of the week, according to what the union has been told by management. Some...

Print movie ads fading fast

When Fox released "Dragonball:Evolution" in 2,000 theaters last weekend, it didn't bother with newspaper ads — or print reviewers, for that matter. The teens who were the target audience just...

More layoffs at Variety *

Variety executive editor Michael Speier is among those losing their jobs as part of a 7% staff cut across parent Reed Business Information, says The Wrap.com. It's the second big...

Ethnic media not all rosy

NPR's "Morning Edition" carried a piece today that made the point that ethnic media are faring better than more traditional newspapers, radio and TV stations. It cited Univision's KMEX and...

Daily Bruin 'financial situation is grim'

Editors at UCLA's student paper "begrudgingly" ran a full-page ad for Haagen-Dazs wrapped around today's front page, and say in an editorial that it's a "regrettable but relatively unavoidable consequence...

Here's how thinner content hurts the LAT

Writer-producer Stu Kreisman has taken the Los Angeles Times for three decades, and he knows the paper still has some top writers. But management decisions to dilute the paper got...

Pajamas Media drops ad biz

Right-of-center blogs that used Pajamas Media as their advertising service are back on their own. The L.A-based PJM is dropping its blog ads network and will focus on PJTV, its...

Tech advice for transitioning journalists

Former L.A. Times systems guy and news editor Brett Levy is offering free webinars for journalists to get up to speed on their tech and New Media skills. The first...

Morning Buzz: Monday 3.30.09

David Zahniser takes a post-Measure B look at Brian D'Arcy, who runs the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 at the DWP. LAT Three high-level managers forced out...

Psst, how about Arnold to start a newspaper?

arnoldharleysmall.jpg Author and Slate blogger Mickey Kaus has several friends at the Los Angeles Times, but for years he has been advocating the demise of the paper — partly in the...

LA Times goes for 'Brand X' *

Unfortunate choice of names, perhaps, but the L.A. Times is officially calling its new weekly tabloid Brand X. It's the latest grasping at straws down on Spring Street and replaces...

Craig Newmark in Hollywood tonight

Zócalo and the New America Foundation are hosting the founder of craigslist at the Arclight tonight at 7:30. Reservations are only available for the waiting list (and the Zócalo website...

I guess 'furlough' means everybody

Daily News top editor Carolina Garcia is out of the office this week on mandatory unpaid furlough. It's not just for hockey writers....

Investigative reporters go private

Wall Street Journal reporters Sue Schmidt and Glenn Simpson are leaving the paper to launch SNS Global LLC, which Politico's Michael Calderone calls "a new company where they’ll do investigative...

Further cuts at NPR

Cinny Kennard's position as head of NPR West won't be filled, plus there are cutbacks in travel, training, salary raises and discussions with the unions about further reductions. Here's the...

Layoffs Monday

Staffers in the Los Angeles Times newsroom expect the the next wave of forced departures to come down today, along with revelations of colleagues who choose this moment to retire...

The New (more gullible) Media

Times media columnist James Rainey wrote over the weekend about how political pros love one unintended consequence of the wane of mainstream news outlets and the rise of blogs —...

Open meeting activists hit with $86,000 bill

Californians Aware and its former president Richard McKee, a Pasadena City College professor, have been ordered to pay the legal fees that Orange Unified School District incurred after being sued...

'This is AOL reporting'

There's about to be a fresh news outlet covering politics. Would you believe AOL? The Wrap reports that the service has hired Melinda Henneberger of Slate, and formerly of the...

Insult or injury — or both?

National Public Radio is canceling all of its newspaper subscriptions, opting instead to grab the stories it takes from print journalists off the web. Romenesko Memos...

Envisioning a post-print L.A. Times

Rick Wartzman is not some Twitter-happy newbie who naively pimps New Media and technology. He's the former Business Editor at the Los Angeles Times, and was the editor of the...

Pondering local news from the left

A coalition of groups including California Common Cause, the Center for Media Justice, the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College and the LA Alliance for a New Economy...

Is collusion the answer for papers?

David Carr, the New York Times media writer, argues that newspapers should stop giving it away on the web and that the nation's publishers should be legally free to conspire...

Antonio 'concerned' about weaker media

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was speaking in his office Friday to a delegation from the California Chicano News Media Association: Latino Journalists of California. At one point, per notes sent to...

LANG papers over their credit limit

Double whammy today in the Los Angeles Newspaper Group world. First, holders of the company-wide Media News Group credit card, called P-Cards, were notified to stop using the cards at...

How tough is it out there?

It's so tough that journalists have stopped entering prize competitions. Recently the L.A. Press Club extended its deadline for contestants to submit entries to the entertainment awards. Now the California...

Daily News re-lowers sights on the Valley

David Kronke, who covered television for the Daily News and wrote the paper's Mayor of Television blog, posted his final item today and said to watch for the launch of...

Another clash over public photos

A photographer taking pictures in the public areas at Union Station deleted his photos under pressure from Amtrak employees. More details at the Discarted blog. Apparently it's in violation of...

Checking out USC's new news operation

NeonTommy.com at USC Annenberg is an "online digital news Web site created to fill a void in local and national news while providing news and commentary across multiple platforms—audio, video...

Photog gets accosted in Santa Monica

Anthony Citrano was taking pictures with his Nikon on Santa Monica Pier when a security guard for Pacific Park said he would have to show ID and sign a waiver,...

If Zell owned Lou Grant's paper...

A scenario as imagined by Joe Flint, the former WSJ, Entertainment Weekly and Variety reporter who is now director of industry programs at the Paley Center for Media. It helps...

Yes, foundations want to fund news

That's the conclusion of David Westphal, who writes at USC's Online Journalism Review that the Knight Foundation's effort to seed the creation of local news operations across the U.S. received...

Enviro coverage on the ascent at NYT

The New York Times is a forming a team of seven reporters from several desks to ramp up its coverage of environmental issues and news. The team includes former L.A....

Another theater critic out

Jm Farber wrote for the South Bay Daily Breeze for 16 years, serving as the paper's theater and arts critic. He was let go today, according to Culture Monster....

More cuts across Singleton land

Guild blog The Stress Telegram has the background on the three journalists laid off today (by seniority in each department, I'm told) at the Long Beach Press-Telegram. There were also...

Another ad barrier falls: NYT front page

Monday's front page in the New York Times carries a 2½-inch high display ad from CBS across the bottom. Economic necessity, the paper explains in a news story. In the...

Media News drops 401k contributions

Staffers at the Daily Breeze came in to find the writing on the wall — OK, technically, the memo on the men's room door. The memo from Media News Group...

Here's innovation in health journalism

“Sowing Hope,” a series in the Merced Sun-Star upstate about efforts to open a medical school at UC Merced, is the first published project of the Center for California Health...

Pulitzer prizes opened to online work

The Pulitzer board announced it will accept submissions of online journalism from "United States newspapers or news organizations that publish at least weekly, that are primarily dedicated to original news...

Sulzberger on NYT's digital future

Memo today in the New York Times newsroom. From: Arthur Sulzberger JR. Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 11:36 AM To: NY TIMES NOTES; NY TIMES INTERNET; ALL IHTNEWS Subject: Our...

Jim O'Shea on newspapers

The previous editor of the Los Angeles Times wonders at the Nieman Watchdog whether newspapers will deliver "the rich, hard-hitting storytelling that gives the news its infrastructure of shoe-leather journalism...

A suggestion for The Homicide Report

Writing at LA Eastside, Browne Molyneux calls on La Opinión and the Sentinel to launch their own community-based versions of the homicide blog that has been put on hiatus by...

Pasadena's reporters in India *

James McPherson, the owner of Pasadena Now who fired his reporters and replaced them with cheap piece workers in India, is featured today in, of all places, Maureen Dowd's column...

Lessons on digitizing the LAT newsroom

Eric Ulken, who recently left as editor for interactive technology at LATimes.com, shares some lessons learned with USC's Online Journalism Review. His main case study is the project to develop...

Daily Bruin goes to China

Credit to the UCLA student newspaper, which sent a reporter and photographer to China for two weeks for a series of stories that began today on UCLA's presence there as...

The San Diego news model

Voice of San Diego could be the future of Los Angeles journalism: small, independent, online, aggressive and above all smart — content with value trumps attitude, and there are no...

Sacto Bee seeking investigative reporter

Hey, somebody's hiring. From Poynter: The Sacramento Bee is the leading news organization in the capital of California, a state boasting one of the world’s largest economies. We're looking to...

Singleton: outsource everything

Dean Singleton, owner of most of the Los Angeles-area newspapers that aren't part of the Times empire, said yesterday in a speech that his MediaNews Group is considering going to...

Why journos will lose the Internet fight

Ex-LAT reporter and editor William Lobdell took some meaning from a recent perusal of the most-viewed stories at the Times and Register websites, concluding that the opinion pieces, crime briefs...

Online Journalism Review revived

USC Annenberg mothballed the original Online Journalism Review in June. But Geneva Overholser, the new director of the Annenberg School of Journalism, announced today that OJR is coming back under...

Downtown blog goes non-profit

Exciting and fairly big news in the world of Los Angeles blogs. Eric Richardson announced today that his blogdowntown has been accepted into an incubator program at Community Partners and...

Denver as last gasp of the old media

Bill Boyarsky, posting dispatches from the Democratic gathering at Truthdig.com, concluded that this convention marked a welcome end to big media dominance of political reporting. This from a media veteran...

Here's an unhappy reporter

Email sent to Rebecca Rosen-Lum, former religion writer at the Contra Costa Times up north, gets back this little dig: The Contra Costa Times has cut its coverage of religion...

That free daily paper lives on

Sounds like everybody got kicked back yesterday emailing to that craigslist ad about a new newspaper forming in Los Angeles. But the ad has surfaced now in the classifieds at...

So much for that 'coveted' media job

More than a dozen journalists — many, but not all, recently staffers at the Los Angeles Times — emailed me that they tried to reply to yesterday's bogus-sounding craigslist ad...

L.A. blogger meets the CIA

Aura Bogado, who blogs at To the Curb, was in Chicago for the Unity journalism conference. Newspapers and other media outlets send recruiting teams to make contacts with potential hires...

Chris Hedges on 'the loss of civic responsibility'

Truthdig's columnist writes: The decline of newspapers is not about the replacement of the antiquated technology of news print with the lightning speed of the Internet. It does not signal...

Tribune star reporter quits

Maurice Possley, a Chicago Tribune criminal justice reporter who was on the team that helped free wrongly convicted death row prisoners, asked to be included in his paper's involuntary separation...

What killed the Online Journalism Review

When OJR suspended publication last month, the move ended a ten-year run in which the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications was a high-profile player in the emerging...

Ex-reporter pens farewell to journalism

Shelly Leachman left the Daily Breeze last Thursday, and with it her career in newspapers (including a stint at the Santa Barbara News-Press in the Wendy McCaw meltdown years.) She's...

Laid-off designer gives finger to Mercury-News

His Flickr stream and an Editor & Publisher story....

Copy editing India

TJ Sullivan checks out the Mindworks Global website and decides to help the Orange County Register's new offshore copy editors with their command of English. Native Intelligence Previously on LA...

Daily News columnist signs off

Steve Young's regular column in the DN's Sunday Viewpoint section is no longer needed, given that this week saw the last Sunday Viewpoint section to be published. Young takes it...

Register: Outsourcing editors to India

Copy-editing of some stories in the Orange County Register, as well as layout of a sister community paper, will be handled at a company in New Delhi starting next month,...

USC shuts down Online Journalism Review

The Online Journalism Review had survived for ten years under the stewardship of USC's Annenberg School of Communications. No more. Editor Robert Niles posted today: I'm pleased to say that...

What is off the record, post-Fowler?

The Huffington Post blogger's decision to tape, and then post, Bill Clinton slamming Vanity Fair writer Todd Purdum is still being discussed and dissected all over the politics and mediasphere....

Next newspaper trend...

Not just fewer pages and sections, but fewer days of the week in print. The Daily Pilot in Orange County just dropped Mondays....

Call to action over laid-off critic's suicide

Christopher Page killed himself three weeks after losing his job as a theater critic and editor at the at the East Valley Tribune in Phoenix. He was 29. Sasha Anawalt,...

News ever more raw

LiveNewsCameras.com offers a wall of live news video from dozens of U.S. cities, and a "moderator" who monitors the hottest stories of that minute. At least, she's there during the...

More local journos win innovation money

Cal State Los Angeles journalism students and faculty have been awarded a New Voices grant intended to support creative new citizen media projects. The team will "partner with community groups...

Daily Bruin editors win $275,000

Anthony Pesce, next year's editor in chief of the student newspaper at UCLA, and photo editor/columnist Dharmishta Rood won a Knight News Challenge award to "create online publishing software geared...

Future of SoCal journalism begins

After losing four sports staffers last week at the Daily News, the sports editor who doubles as writer of the paper's successful Kings blog had to ask for volunteers to...
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