Thursday morning headlines

Another day of light posting (probably tomorrow too) due to deadlines elsewhere.

LAT investigates itself: The Times appears to have been scooped in its veeeery strange plan to assign investigative reporters and editors the task of looking for ways to attract new readers. Dubbed the Manhattan Project (oy vey), the effort is supposed to start today and be completed in about two months. New LAT Publisher tells the NYT that "the newsroom is energized about innovation." Three reporters and six editors are being engaged for the mission, which I'm sure will come up with all kinds of ingenious ideas that have never before been considered. From the NYT:

Those involved in the project said they did not want to be passive by-standers as their paper, like many metro dailies, struggled to transform itself in the Internet age. “We shouldn’t be waiting for corporate headquarters or a think tank or a consultant to come up with ideas to secure our future,” said Marc Duvoisin, an assistant managing editor who will direct the investigation.

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Those on the project in Los Angeles said they were already mulling several ideas. They include creating new sections; adding columnists and using citizens to “report” on local matters; and expanding the paper statewide. The Times in recent years has eliminated its national edition and cut back its availability outside of Southern California.

Update: The investigators might want to check out a piece on Forbes.com on the future of newspapers and why things might not be as bleak as they seem.

Art news: David Geffen has sold two postwar paintings by Jasper Johns and Willem de Kooning for a total of $143.5 million. The buyers in this private sale are hedge fund billionaires Kenneth Griffin and Steven Cohen. The art market is red hot in advance of next month's sales at the auction houses. And yes, the sales are feeding speculation that Geffen is raising money to buy the LAT.

Allen sale: That's in Paul Allen, the original big-money investor for DreamWorks, and he's setting in motion plans to cash out. The means is a secondary public offering that Allen had an option to exercise. The offering could generate $300 million, well short of the bucks Allen first put into the Dream Team's efforts to hatch a studio from scratch.

About executive pay: WSJ takes a good look at why the numbers keep going up, despite numerous efforts at restraint. The average pay last year for the CEO of a large company was $10.5 million, according to USC professor Kevin Murphy (that includes salary, bonus and the value of stock and stock-option grants). Average CEO pay, says Murphy, was 369 times as much as the average earned by a worker last year, compared with 131 times in 1993 and 36 times in 1976. L.A.'s own Charlie Munger (he's also vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway) called it "wretched excess."

In an interview, Mr. Munger says he hears complaints even from "Republicans who grumble on the country-club porch" about the resulting political turmoil over the pay question. They're "mad at corporate America," he says.

Hotel workers: That big protest near LAX apparently did some good. A City Council committee voted to impose living wage requirements for hotels along Century Boulevard. Committee approval normally signals full Council passage. Currently, the living wage is $9.39 an hour with health care benefits and $10.64 an hour without benefits.

Celeb ads: Remember the time when American movie stars thumbed their noses at offers to appear in U.S. ads? Well, there's now a line-up looking to cash in. About 20 percent of all ads in the United States feature celebrities, double that of a decade ago. Among the unlikely pitch-people: Bob Dylan and Robert De Niro.

All grown up: As Woodland Hills nears city-mandated growth limits, developers want to keep putting up residential units - much of it aimed at working class folks who have jobs in nearby malls - and the neighbors are saying it's too much.

Contractors available: Now that the housing boom is over - and along with it big-ticket construction - contractors are actually returning your calls for the smaller stuff.