Orange County Register reporter Mary Ann Milbourn didn’t have to go very far to talk to the potential LA Times suitor who has been most explicitly vocal about their interest in the property. That’s because it’s her boss – Aaron Kushner (pictured):

“We do think of the Los Angeles Times as an incredibly important institution,” Kushner said. “We would be honored to acquire the Los Angeles Times if they successfully are able to come out of bankruptcy.”

He said the other Tribune newspapers play a similarly important role in their communities and are the kinds of media properties that interest his investment group. Kushner has hired Morgan Stanley as a financial adviser to help with his acquisition plans. The publisher, however, declined to say where funding would come from for a Tribune purchase.

Read more

It’s always interesting to be able to read specific examples of how a big media operation is mining the Web for operational and editorial direction.

Joseph Gordon joined U-T San Diego as director of research in 2011. He tells 1to1media.com senior writer Cynthia Clark that when he arrived, the newspaper was failing to take advantage of the raw Anametrix data. He was worked hard to help everyone dig deeper and cites this specific instance of how the metrics have helped:

Gordon uses the example of one particular reporter on the watchdog team who had one of the lowest numbers when U-T San Diego started leveraging analytics. By making changes, including becoming more attentive to the wording he was using for headlines, tagging them properly and leveraging social media, his pieces jumped from about 18,000 views per month to close to 100,000 monthly views.

Read more

After an 18-month dispute with photographer David Strick, the Los Angeles Times was awarded $266,000 by an arbitrator  according to court documents obtained by The Wrap:

The case was decided in June, when retired judge Peter D. Lichtman, the arbitrator in the matter, dismissed Strick’s claims.

“Judge Lichtman properly found that the Times was entitled to recover the substantial cost it incurred in defending against Mr. Strick’s meritless lawsuit, and recognized that the conduct of Mr. Strick’s counsel contributed to the high cost of this litigation,” Kelli Sager, who represented the paper in the matter, told TheWrap in a statement. Read more

A study and infographic released last week by 4th Estate reveals a lack of diversity among newspaper reporters covering politics. The study analyzed election coverge on the front pages of 38 major news outlets between January 1 through October 12, and found that 93% of stories were written by white reporters. According to the U.S. census, the overall population is only 63.4% white*.

Read more

What you’re looking at is part of a chart of the media websites with the most shared and liked content on Facebook (click for full version.) While Huffington Post leads the pack, it’s worth noting that most of the sites in the top 40 are old media properties like the New York Times, the BBC, and the Washington Post. Our Los Angeles Times is number 18 on the list. New media giant Buzzfeed, who created the chart, is at number 8.

As Buzzfeed explains, the chart shows “the publishers with the greatest number of stories that have over 100 Facebook interactions in the month of September. A “Facebook interaction” is defined as basically any kind of thing you can do with a link on Facebook — a like, a comment, or a share. The data was collected by Newswhip, which tracks over 5,000 English language newspapers and pulls the likes, shares and comments for their stories from Facebook’s open API.”

Bad news for Glendale residents: The offices of the Glendale News-Press, currently on Brand Blvd. in Glendale, will be shuttered and the staff moved to the LA Times building downtown. The News-Press will cease publishing a Tuesday edition of the paper, taking it down to a 5-day-a-week operation. The Monday edition was scrapped in 2011.

Other community newspapers under the the Los Angeles Times umbrella are also facing changes. The Costa Mesa Daily Pilot will also cease publishing a Tuesday edition. There will no longer be a Sunday edition of the La Cañada Valley Sun. The Burbank Leader will return to a Wednesday and Saturday print schedule.

Not all the news is bad, however. LA Times Spokesperson Nancy Sullivan tells us, “We are putting more emphasis on digital. Times Community News’ sites, particularly the breaking news blogs – The 818 Now, The 626 Now and The OC Now, will have more frequent posts of brief, informative stories as we continue to see online readership rise. We’re also rolling out new Glendale News-Press and Daily Pilot apps (Android & Apple) on November 1.”

As a Glendale resident, I’m sad to see the News-Press offices go. While this was likely a necessary cost-cutting measure, it’s unfortunate that the paper will lose a physical presence in the community it covers. But I’m happy to learn I’ll soon be reading the News-Press on my iPad. Makes for a decent silver lining.

A day after KPBS relayed Doug Manchester’s possible interest in acquiring the LA Times, there is news of a much bigger media mogul sniffing around this city’s prized daily newspaper. According to LA Times reporter Meg James, her new boss could potentially turn out to be none other than Rupert Murdoch:

News Corp. executives have had preliminary talks with debt holders about acquiring the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, according to two ranking News Corp. executives and others familiar with the situation.

These people cautioned that talks are in the early stages, and that a deal is by no means certain… On trips to Los Angeles, Murdoch is known to mark up the newspaper with a Sharpie pen to illustrate how he would design pages.

Read more

Amita Sharma (pictured) has been working at San Diego’s KPBS TV station as a reporter for more than a decade, after graduating from USC with degrees in journalism and international relations. Tonight, she has filed a report that will likely send shudders through her former college stomping grounds.

Sharma spoke earlier this week in person with U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester. Here’s what he told her when asked whether he has an interest in bidding for the LA Times’ bankruptcy-exiting parent Tribune Co.:

“We certainly are going to look at [buying] it,” Manchester said. “We are looking at it, yes. I would like to, yes…”

Added U-T CEO John Lynch: “We believe our business model will work and create great economic benefit to all of the investors.”

Read more

Either the Los Angeles Times needs a copy editor for their headlines, or a dead astronaut just lost an endorsement deal with Nike.

The headline has been corrected since this screen shot was taken, but not before Jim Romenesko took notice. Original version can still be viewed with Google Cache.

Read more

Were these guys watching the same debate?

In the wake of last night’s binder full of shaky Romney moments, the editorial board of U-T San Diego has managed to put some inordinately bright spin on their preferred candidate’s Hofstra town hall performance. To the paper’s credit, the article leads with mentions that President Obama was “much better,” displaying more energy and a real sense of personal engagement. But the piece then goes on to over-emphasize the Romney highlights:

When the president made a statement that carried with it the implication that his policies had led to the U.S. oil and natural gas boom, Romney exposed the phoniness of that by pointing out the boom was on private lands.

Read more