LA Times Calendar Section: The Mass Exodus

Look, we’re old salts when it comes to journalists changing gigs. We were there for what we call the ’08-’09 blood bath. Tens of thousands of journalists laid off. It was like blogging at a morgue.

Anyway, the post-Apocalypse LAT Calendar section is still losing talent. Today’s exit: one of the last remaining senior television writers Maria Elena Fernandez. That makes three senior writers whom have left Calendar in the past month (music critic Ann Powers and reporter Chris Lee being the other two).

This is the biggest most passionately cared about industry in Los Angeles. It’s the industry in LA. As we’ve said before, this would be like the Washington Post having a dysfunctional politics section. It’s just bad for our town to have its biggest paper not be able to cover the industry we’re most noted for.

Here is the complete list of editorial staff who have parted company with the Calendar section in the past 18 months:

1. Kate Aurthur (TV editor)
2. Elizabeth Snead (blogger)
3. Denise Martin (reporter)
4. Pete Hammond (Envelope writer)
5. Tom O’ Neil (Envelope writer)
6. Richard Rushfield (web editor/writer)
7. Joseph Kapsch (web editor)
8. Rachel Abramowitz
9. Chris Lee
10. Ann Powers
11. Tim Swanson
12. Matea Gold
13. Maria Elena Fernandez

What is going on at that section? That’s what .8 journos a month?

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