Long before my days as co-editor of FishbowlLA, I spent my Saturday afternoons at L.A. Youth, a newspaper for teens, by teens. It was during these weekly meetings with my peers from schools all across Los Angeles that I realized I wanted to pursue journalism as a profession.

So, it broke my heart to read in Monday’s Los Angeles Times that the non-profit needs to raise $500,000 in funding by mid-May or it will run out of cash:

But as the newspaper approaches a quarter-century, it is struggling to hang on. The foundations whose grants have long been the primary source of funding have pulled out, and board members who once brought in corporate donations have been laid off, said Donna Myrow, L.A. Youth’s executive director.

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The recipients of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships have been announced, and of the 20 journalists who have been selected, one of them is a local. That would be David Sarno, technology reporter for the Los Angeles Times business section.

The John S. Knight allows recipients to pursue their ideas for innovative journalism at Stanford during the 2012-13 academic year. Sarno will work on creating “video tutorials showing journalists how to quickly build touchable, 3-D computer graphics for news.”

Other fellowship recipients from the golden state include Andrew Donohue, editor of the Voice of San Diego, Mary Aviles, editor of the EFE News Services in San Jose, and Kevin Weston, a new media entrepreneur from Oakland.

When DJ Laz bailed as the longtime morning drive radio host on Miami’s Power 96 at the beginning of April after 22 years, he suggested it was time for a change. Today, it was announced that the popular South Florida personality will be relocating to the west coast to continue entertaining morning commuters.

Starting May 14, DJ Laz – real name Lazaro Mendez - will re-up on KXOL 96.3 FM (a.k.a. Latino 96.3) for The DJ Laz Morning Show. The program will air weekdays from six to 10 a.m, bumping the current time slot tandem of Raquel Cordova and Nachin. The show will also be available over the Internet at Lamusica.com. Here’s more info about LA’s newest radio personality via Orlando Sentinel columnist Ben Crandall:

Laz has also been a force in the South Florida hip-hop scene as a performer and producer, working with such as stars Lil Jon, Flo-Rida, T-Pain and his nephew, Pitbull. “Signing DJ Laz is very much in line with our strategy of delivering the biggest stars and the best content possible,” said Jesus Salas, executive vice president of programming for [KXOL parent] Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. (SBS).

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Alexia Tsotsis, full-time TechCruch editor and part-time fashionista, is parting with a chunk of her wardrobe to benefit the nonprofit Charity:Water. In partnership with online consignment shop Threadflip, Tsotsis is offering up fashionable finds ranging from a J. Crew sweater (pictured at right) to a studded pair of Miu Miu heels.

The clothing sale is part of a larger effort by Tsotsis to raise $10,000 for Charity:Water. Tsotsis dedicated her 30th birthday to the cause, encouraging donations in lieu of gifts.

Charity:Water is an organization dedicated to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Unsafe water kills approximately 30,000 people every week, mostly children, so it’s easy to see why Tsotsis was eager to get involved. 100% of donations to Charity:Water go directly to funding safe water projects, a refreshing alternative to the many charities who blow a significant portion of donations on “operating costs.”

And if Tsotsis looks familiar, it’s because she used to be a local. She served as LA Weekly’s Internet culture reporter in 2008 and 2009. She now resides in San Francisco.

Is any publicity good publicity? Not when the topic of the USA TODAY article is U.S. college newspaper woes and the editor of Harbor Tides at Los Angeles Harbor College is the lede:

Joseph Valdez says he has seen his newspaper’s budget “cut drastically” the past two years. His print paper may soon be eliminated, as the push continues to take news to what many see as newspapers’ ultimate destination: the Internet, with all of its uncertain profitability…

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A promising second trailer for Aaron Sorkin‘s new HBO drama The Newsroom premiered Sunday night prior to Game of Thrones. The show stars Jeff Daniels as Will McAvoy, a network news anchor struggling to honor journalistic ethics in the face of soulless corporate demands, Emily Mortimer as his executive producer, and Jane Fonda as the scary media mogul who owns their asses.

From the UK, Tom Scott last Friday afternoon launched his delightful goof klouchebag.com, a send-up of San Francisco-based Twitter influence meter klout.com. Within a few hours, media types in LA were tweeting out their “Klouchebag” rating.

“I had the idea the day before [Thursday], after reading this article in Wired,” Scott tells FishbowlLA via email. “I’d been annoyed with the idea of Klout for a while, and that crystalized it. The site was built in a couple of hours of spare time.”

There is no real science behind Scott’s latest project, taglined “The Standard for Asshattery.” Or, as the 27-year-old Brit puts it in his front-page FAQ , his service ‘is about as scientific as Klout’s own measurements — which is to say, it’s pretty much a crapshoot.’

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The American Prospect, a left-leaning political magazine, is facing the possibility of shutting down at the end of May. To keep the lights on, the nonprofit rag is in need of $500,000. Prospect editor Kit Rachlis (previously an editor at the LA Times, Los Angeles Magazine, and LA Weekly) told Michael Calderone of the Huffington Post that the publication hopes to raise the needed funds through donors and readers.

Still, Rachlis thought the situation was serious enough to inform staffers last Thursday of the magazine’s current financial woes.

Rachlis said Prospect editors “thought it was important to be fair to the staff, to let them know there was a possibility that if we didn’t fill it, the Prospect‘s last issue as currently constituted would be the July/August issue.” The Prospect, which has a robust website, publishes 10 print issues annually; the July/August double issue closes in late May.

Here’s hoping they pull through. The world doesn’t need any more unemployed journalists.

We told you earlier this month about Dylan Howard moving from Star magazine and Radar Online to celebuzz.com as the BUZZMEDIA site’s new editor-in-chief. At the time, Howard promised he would be “hiring some of the best journalists in our beat over the coming weeks.”

The first hire is a good one. Relocating within a few weeks from LA to New York as celebuzz.com’s incoming executive editor will be Joseph Kapsch (pictured), currently the editor of THR.com. One of the reasons for the move is that it will allow Kapsch to be closer to family. Here’s what Kapsch posted on his Facebook page:

SOME EXCITING/BREAKING PERSONAL NEWS: So most of you that know me well know that I’ve always said when the right time and opportunity arrived I would eventually head back to New York. Well, that time has arrived: Today, I accepted a new opportunity with BUZZMEDIA in New York as the executive editor, Celebuzz.

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#BREAKING: All 4 #LAPD officers acquitted in #RodneyKing beating. Deadlocked: 1 count excessive force for Powell.

— Real Time LA Riots (@RealTimeLARiots) April 29, 2012

Business is picking up on NBCLA’s Real Time LA Riots Twitter account. Let’s see how many days they keep this account going post-verdict.