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Newspaper DeathwatchLA Weekly Gets Defensive About Neon Tommy ReportEarlier this week, the USC student-run online publication Neon Tommy published a profile of LA Weekly editor Drex Heikes. The story was not unflattering, and I was impressed by Heikes' candor about many of the issues facing the paper. He openly acknowledged how grim things had become: "Sometime in the winter, spring, it bottomed out," Heikes said gravely from his new desk at the Weekly's Culver City headquarters. "I wasn't here, but from what I understand, there were sparks on the pavement. The shocks were gone. There was just nothing left." Of course Heikes is cocksure he can turn the place around. His assessment is ballsy and honest, and who wouldn't appreciate that? Well, LA Weekly staffer Dennis Romero, for one. Today he wrote a blog post titled, "For The Record: Setting Things Straight Regarding Neon Tommy Report On LA Weekly." And to be fair, the Neon Tommy story contained a glaring factual error. It reported an editorial staff of six, when it is in fact about three times that. But Romero is more eager to contradict his editor's acknowledgment of problems at the paper - or to blame them on the former staff. Tommy's gives some ink to the notion espoused by the Weekly's critics -- mostly former employees -- that the paper has seen better days and is need of rescuing or, in the parlance of the Neon ones, that it needs saving -- a "Herculean task." (The headline of the Neon Tommy story was "Heikes' Herculean Task: Save The L.A. Weekly.") Herculean is not the word. Once we dust off the notepads that were rarely used by some of the Weekly's columnists of yesterday, it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel. His attacks on the pre-New Times LA Weekly come in unbelievably broad strokes that are not only unfair but inaccurate. For every desk-bound opinion columnist like Harold Meyerson, there was a hard-hitting reporter like David Zahniser whose notebook was never, ever dusty. As one of the former staffers being slammed indiscriminately by Romero, I'm admittedly a little peeved. I'm gonna take a walk around the block, punch a wall, listen to some Joan Jett - but I'll be back. And I've got a few things to say. San Diego Union-Tribune Demonstrates A Strong Need For Copy EditorsNBC San Diego was less than impressed with the San Diego Union-Tribune's new automated pagination system:
Our sister blog MediaJobsDaily notes that the paper "eliminated 192 positions back in May after being bought by an equity firm. Now, it seems like they may want to hire some of those folks back...at least the copy editors." Previously on FBLA: Print After PartiesArtists Jason Eppink and Posterchild are repurposing abandoned newspaper boxes in New York city. "When the last vestiges of a collapsed empire litter the landscape, there's only one thing to do: throw a bumpin' party and dance on the ruins." More details here. The Nation's the Future of Journalism II
Nick Penniman from Huffington Post's investigative fund discusses the biz. Via Twitter NYT Publishes Spot.Us Funded ArticleYahoo News reports: The science section of The New York Times contained an unusual article on Tuesday. The story about a huge floating garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean was not written by a Times reporter but by a freelance journalist whose expenses were paid by hundreds of donors in an experiment in "crowd-funded" journalism. Previously on FBLA: Michael Connelly Talks Newspapers With SoCal Con"The new growth industry is going to be corruption, corruption on a small scale, because that's the newspapers meat and potatoes is to kind of watchdog that type of thing," says former LAT reporter turned crime writer Michael Connelly. Speaking of watchdogs, the commentary on this episode was by LA Weekly's Jill Stewart going out to our new Chief of Police Charlie Beck. Watch it here. Tribune Co. Lets Employees Know Exactly How Much Worthless Stock They OwnChief Administrative Officer Gerry Spector indicated yesterday in a memo about retirement plan changes that the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) was going to be killed. Ed Padgett has posted the memo on his Los Angeles Times pressmen blog, and we found the following excerpt especially interesting: When we emerge from bankruptcy, we expect that the shares of Tribune stock held by the ESOP will be extinguished and the plan terminated. Duff & Phelps, a nationally recognized appraisal firm, recently determined that as of December 31, 2008, the value of a share of Tribune Company stock held by the ESOP was $0. Nonetheless, in keeping with the plan provisions, the company has made the initial allocation of shares to the accounts of eligible employees. You will receive a letter in a few weeks reflecting this valuation and informing you of the number of shares you were allocated, as required by the plan. Wonder how much it costs the company to send notices to all those employees about exactly how shares of ZERO they own? The Pressman Called ItThis summer, pressman Ed Padgett broke the news on his blog that on June 7, 2009, the L.A. Times Sunday circulation had dropped below a million for the first time in decades. Of course we covered it on FBLA. And then we all got a stern talking to from the LAT because of it. You see, *official* circulation numbers come from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. So Padgett must have been feeling vindicated when the ABC released the new circulation numbers today. From Editor & Publisher: The Los Angeles Times reported its daily circ is off 11% to 657,467 and 6.7% on Sunday to 983,702. Of course, it's wretched news - especially for employees of the LAT like Padgett. But when you've been given a hard time by your employer, who happens to be a newspaper, for doing accurate reporting about the newspaper - well, that pressman must be feeling a wee bit vindicated.
LA Times Circulation Down 11.05%
From E&P: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- 2,024,269 -- 0.61% For the rest of the numbers go here. Hey Recently Laid Off LAT Photographers - The Pro Photography Network is Open for Business
They're at The Pro Photography Network. Their press release states: "We will shoot anything, anywhere, for anyone," said Matt Randall, who worked at The Times for 22 years as a Photographer, Photo Dept Operations Manager and lastly Financial Operations Manager of The Foreign Bureaus. He left the company in September 2008. Randall tells FBLA in the four months most of the almost all laid off former LAT photographers have gotten work. So if you're a bride or just want to look like one...call these guys! PreviouslyNewsday Has a Brilliant Idea...Brilliant Hey Recently Laid Off LATers - The Journalism Shop is Open for Business FBLA Interview With Paper Cut's Erica Smith Chris Ayres' Commentary About the Decline of Newspapers in US By The Way, Twitter Still Isn't Making Money AP News Boss Tom Curley Has a Brilliant Idea Michael Moore: Too Many Americans Are Too Illiterate To Support Newspapers POTUS Wants Newspapers To Be Viable Business Week Takes on Journalism Job Market Hollywood Trade Papers Change and Charge Voice of OC to Launch End of the Year OC Register Sports Columnist Finds Humor In Jaycee Dugard's Ordeal Death Of The Daily, A Long Time Coming? Chapter 11 For Owner Of The OC Register The Grey Lady Starts Crowdsourcing LA Times Editor Admits What Everyone Already Knows Tribune Management Determined To Stick Around Alex Remington: Getting Out of the Newspaper Biz Two California Papers Cutting Payroll By 10% San Francisco Chronicle Loses Last Remaining Investigative Reporter WaPo Journo Writes About Future of Newspapers After Being Lifted by Gawker Dan Rather Wants Uncle Sam to Want to Save News Sam Zell Says Tribune May Exit Bankruptcy By End Of Year Tribune Co Asks Bankruptcy Court For Permission To Pay Bonuses Major Media Oulets Report Kimo Leopoldo's Death, Leopoldo Is Surprised Government Subsidies for Newspapers Circa 1943 Breaking: OC Register Announces 5% Paycut June 7, 2009- Circulation of The LA Times Sunday Edition Drops Below One Million Former Publisher On The Firing Of LA Weekly Editor Newspaper Ad Sales In Sharp Decline Lauren Rich Fine on Newspapers Charging for Content Editor-In-Chief Laurie Ochoa Leaving LA Weekly Turning Empty News Boxes Into Flower Beds Of Course LAT Would Have to Cover 'Embitterment Disorder' Police Union Wants Union-Tribune Editorial Writers Sacked New Michael Connelly Novel Depicts LAT Meltdown Huffpo Investigative Fund to be Run by WaPo Editor Tucson Citizen: Dead or Online? The Grey Lady Debates on How to Charge for Web Content David Simon On The Downfall Of American Newspapers Clay Shirky Breaks Down the Newspaper Meltdown 192 Jobs Cut At San Diego Union-Tribune Gibbs Sez Prez Sez No Bailouts for Newspapers Two Reporters Get Canned as They Were Covering a Baseball Game Mega-Downsizing at Newspaper Association of America Prof at Anneberg Said Sac Bee Outsourcing Governor Race Coverage to College Paper Warning Of Layoffs At Los Angeles Daily News Ben Affleck on the State of Newspapers (Spoiler Alert: It's Bad) Zell Admits Tribune Deal A Mistake, Still A Delusional Ass Salon Talks Newspapers Going Non-Profit LAT Runs Story On Controversial Front Page Ad Freeze On Vacation Time For Daily News Employees Saving Newspapers: The Musical SF Chronicle Gets Plenty of Applications for Buyouts LA CityBeat Mourned In The Blogosphere Erica Smith is Miffed at CNN for Misquoting Her Stats Layoffs at San Francisco Chronicle Huffpo Announces Its Ripping Off ProPublica's Idea With A Fraction of the Money Are You Still Employed? Then Ignore This Post BREAKING: LA CityBeat Has Folded Even The New York Times is Doling Out Salary Cuts Layoffs And Paycuts At Bakersfield Californian LAT And Chicago Tribune Foreign Desks To Merge Newspaper Layoffs Hit 6,000 This Year - in March - Mid-March Eric Holder Now Says He Also Is For Adjusting Antitrust Policy to Save Newspapers Union-Tribune Finds a Buyer...A Foreign One (Hint: Canadian) Tucson Citizen Has Two 'Interested Buyers' Seattle Post-Intelligencer Published Final Issue Today Pelosi Wants to Help Bay Area Newspapers Through Antitrust Laws Kathleen Parker Agrees with FBLA Arizona's Oldest Newspaper, Tucson Citizen to Fold Newspaper Publisher McClatchy To Cut 1,600 Jobs SF Chronicle May Cut Half Their Staff The Copy Editor's Lament: The Layoff Song What Do You Think of the 'iTunes Model' for Newspapers? Newsday and SF Chron Will Start Charging LAT Memo: 'We Will Have to Be More Selective About Which Stories Appear in Print' Breakdown Of The LA Times Layoffs SF Chronicle Up for Sale or 'Close It Altogether' Pressmen Protest At The LA Times Memo From LA Times Editor Russ Stanton LA Times 70+ Layoffs To Come In Phases LA Times Loses Another Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Yet Another Person Thinks Almost No Theater Critics in LA is Bad It's Official: Newspaper People Don't Have Any New/Viable Ideas LAT Finally Discovers Spot.us Calls in 'New' in A Headline and Wonders Why Print Media is Failing Not The LA Times Takes on California Section Time Magazine Thinks Newspapers Are In Trouble LA Times Lays Off Printing Press Workers Newspapers Are Not Dead...Just Laying Very Very Still LAT Announces 300 Will Be Laid Off, Then It's Stalled Because of Chapter 11 Tahoe Daily Tribune to Only Publish 3 Days a Week |
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