Gustavo Arellano - FishbowlLA

Getting to Know Some of This Year’s SoCal Journalism Award Finalists

Richard Horgan — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:15:18 +0000

Congrats to all finalists (so far) for the LA Press Club’s 55th annual SoCal Journalism Awards, to be presented at the Biltmore Hotel Sunday June 23. In perusing the honor rolls, here are some of the categories that most intrigued us:

Journalist of the Year – Print (Over 50,000 Circulation):

The name we were not completely familiar with – alongside those of Gustavo Arellano (OC Weekly), Matthew Belloni (THR), Gene Maddaus (LA Weekly) and Matthew Garrahan (Financial Times) – is U-T San Diego’s Fred Dickey (no relation to TMZ managing editor Josh). Even if this Dickey wins, he will still have a tough road to hoe in that department at home. According to his website bio, microbiologist wife Kathleen has lent her name to nine U.S. patents.

Journalist of the Year – Online

These are dark days for Patch, with a conference call last Friday as reported by Romenesko revealing more rough tactical agenda items. But here in SoCal, the sun is shining on Rancho Santa Margarita local editor Martin Henderson. He is nominated in this category together with Dennis Romero (LA Weekly), Dylan Howard (Celebuzz), Chris Hedges (Truthdig) and Catherine Green (Neon Tommy). This guy has paid his dues, winning his first journalism award in high school and starting at the LA Times all the way back in1990.

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OC Register Dropping Adult Ads?

Richard Horgan — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:30:37 +0000

Whenever OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano sets Orange County Register savior Aaron Kushner in his “Navel Gazing” sights, it feels a lot like a conversation between a pair of unlikely suburban neighbors. Check out my manicured lawn, says the one. I turned down my music for this, wonders the other?

This afternoon, Arellano has shared a letter sent by Register senior vp of sales and marketing Michael H. Burns to an unspecified group of newspaper advertisers. Gustavo says the recipients are of a kind that used to favor boxed drawings of a man in a Panama hat ogling a young woman:

Though Burns doesn’t name the business category affected, sources say the only such advertisers to receive the [termination] letters were in the adult section of the paper. The paper will enact its ban May 31.

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OC Weekly Tries to Atone for Headline Sin

Richard Horgan — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:30:16 +0000

One of the hazards of the blogging trade, especially when the purview pertains to breaking/crime news, is to throw up an item that contains an egregious typo or flippant error of judgment. Despite a writer’s best efforts, it’s only after the item publishes that the transgression becomes apparent.

Such was the case Friday with OC Weekly staff writer Matt Coker. When his headline for a post about Anaheim police investigating the incendiary death of a 21-year-old Cypress College student caused outrage, he offered to permanently replace it with the best reader suggestion. And so, instead of “Burning Man Festival Comes to California,” the article now appears under the banner “Winning Headline: Asshole Writes a Shitty Half-Assed Story about a Tragic Homicide“.

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OC Register Going Behind a Paywall in April

Matthew Fleischer — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:25:44 +0000

Following the LA Times‘ lead, the Orange County Register will put its online content behind a paywall starting next month, according to a letter to the paper’s subscribers obtained by OC Weekly. Unlike the Times, however, which allows full online access to Sunday paper subscribers, the Register paywall will be more restrictive.

From the letter:

In April, we will take another promising step to reinforce the value of your subscription by introducing Digital Access. The local content that you access digitally through OCRegister.com is moving to a digital subscription model. Current print subscribers will have free digital access on the days you are subscribed to the print-edition. You simply need to link your account to activate your free Digital Access. In the coming week, we will send a follow-up email with instructions on how to link your account.

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Meet Michael Sragow, the Orange County Register’s New Film Critic

Richard Horgan — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 03:00:42 +0000

It all started so innocently. Michael Sragow, the newly announced film critic for the Orange County Register, was minding his own Tribune Co. business in Baltimore when he received an email.

“Someone forwarded to me an alt-weekly article that was sort of making fun of the new [Register] ownership for concentrating on the print product,” Sragow tells FishbowlLA via telephone. (Though he could not remember the specifics of the article, it sounded very much to us like the OC Weekly handiwork of Gustavo Arellano.) “I actually thought, ‘That [focus] is a pretty smart idea’”

“I got in touch with the [Register] editors, who directed me to the job posting,” he continues. “Just the way they were talking about the position, and how they wanted someone who could talk about a wide range of movies past and present… It was so unusual in today’s world of cultural journalism that I really jumped at it.”

Sragow, scheduled to officially start in March, is headed our way this weekend to begin the search for a new place to live. He and wife Glenda are also getting ready to sell their home in Baltimore, where he has worked since 2001 for the Sun newspaper.

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BREAKING: Huell Howser Has Passed Away

Richard Horgan — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:30:58 +0000

This is the kind of scoop that no reporter likes to break.

Per some unnamed sources who spoke to OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano, beloved and recently KCET-retired broadcaster Huell Howser has passed away. From today’s late morning dispatch:

Howser has died, according to sources who spoke to the Weekly on condition of anonymity.

The news will come as a shock to his legions of fans, all of whom were puzzled when Howser announced his retirement late last year, as Howser still seemed to have the enthusiasm and energy that made him so easy to parody–and so beloved to millions of Californians.

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WEHOville.com Publisher Puts Himself Out There with ‘Ask a Gay’

Richard Horgan — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 08:00:05 +0000

Take my column, please. That has pretty much been the approach espoused by WEHOville.com publisher Henry “Hank” Scott with his weekly column “Ask a Gay.”

Patterned after OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano‘s “¡Ask a Mexican!,” Scott’s tongue-in-cheek responses to emailed questions from readers are a bold and brash attempt to connect with a major part of the WeHo constituency. Is it working? We’re not sure, but the format certainly has fun leapfrogging over usual letter-from-the-publisher boundaries. Here for example is how Scott began a recent response to a woman asking whether celebrities still need today to worry about staying in the closet:

So you’re asking me if Tom Cruise is gay? Don’t know. Haven’t slept with him. And seriously, he’s so not my type (I like ‘em edgy and have a thing for shaved heads)…

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Tom Leykis Planning a Very Marijuana Christmas

Richard Horgan — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000

As Tom Leykis winds down the end of his first year as a Burbank-based Internet radio show host, he’s decided to start his own Christmas tradition. And as with most on-air things the blower-upper inserts himself into, it’s going to be unconventional and abetted by the fact that he’s no longer constrained by the limits of advertiser-supported terrestrial radio.

During the first hour of his Monday, December 24 broadcast stream, he and his cohorts will smoke a couple of joints. From there, it’s anybody’s guess how the rest of the program, which is set to include some Jean Shepherd storytelling, will go. What’s more, Leykis officially announced today that he has decided to stick with the Internet show for at least another year:

“Since Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics started collecting data on September 10, we have surpassed two million tune-ins and this past week, we had the best week ever for The Tom Leykis Show with over on 176,000 connections,” he said.

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OC Weekly Editor Rips Mainstream Media for Lack of Prior Jenni Rivera Coverage

Richard Horgan — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:45:51 +0000

Never one to mince words, OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano is castigating the MSM in general and the Los Angeles Times in particular for their apathetic coverage of banda music superstar Jenni Rivera prior to her tragic death this weekend.

Although he admits that online newspaper archive searches can be misleading (and urges the LAT folks to correct him if he is wrong), he says he found traces of only two feature articles:

A look through the Proquest archives show that the Times never did a single full profile on Rivera – not once. The only full stories on her were two. One was a story on a reality show involving her youngest daughter. Another – of all things! – was a real-estate story on Rivera purchasing a multi-million dollar estate in Encino…

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Gustavo Arellano to Help KCRW Consider All Things Orange County

Richard Horgan — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:00:55 +0000

All that’s left now is for KCRW to officially find room for Madeleine Brand and the circle of KPCC irony will be complete.

That’s because OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano (pictured), newly announced as a weekly contributor to KCRW’s end of All Things Considered, was reportedly one of the candidates earlier this year for the KPCC slot briefly assumed alongside Brand by A Martinez. Yes, it’s a small LA radio world.

From today’s announcement:

“KCRW was looking for someone who could shine a bright light on this sprawling, diverse and vitally important region of Southern California, and we are happy to have Gustavo as a guide,” says Gary Scott, news program director at KCRW. “Gustavo is smart, he’s dogged, he’s funny… and he’s occasionally outrageous – but he’s more passionate and plugged in than just about anyone you’ll ever meet.”

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OC Register Reportedly Finds Its Food Critic

Richard Horgan — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:45:33 +0000

According to OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano, the Orange County Register has settled on who gets to fill one of the paper’s choicest reporter openings. His sources say the job of food critic has gone to Brad A. Johnson.

By sheer coincidence, we mentioned Johnson just the other day in our interview piece with new Time Out Los Angeles editor Lisa Sweetingham. From the OC Weekly report:

Johnson was the longtime food critic for Angeleno (the sister luxury mag to our Riviera), where he earned mucho praise for succinct yet florid reviews not just of the higher strata of Los Angeles restaurants but also the holes-in-the-wall that make modern-day food criticism such a joy to read.

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OC Weekly Editor Dumps All Over His Chosen Constituency

Richard Horgan — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:00:09 +0000

Our pal Gustavo Arellano is at it again. As in cheekily redefining how to have fun with the alt-weekly, op ed beat.

His recent countdown piece “50 Reasons Why Orange County is the Worst Effing Place in America” has now racked up more than 200 reader reactions. Among our favorites:

PSURFpsyche4EVER: Bro, worst place in America? Try worst place in THE WORLD! OC is the most oppressive place to live. I wish I lived in a third world country, or Nebraska, or somewhere else that’s similar to Nebraska that also has lots of cultural diversity…

GatorHatchling: During high school, I used to have a stalker cop who patrolled the main street where I lived and would stop me on the street every time he saw me. OC is so influenced by the notion that you can pop a pill to cure anything, that he recommended I take Xanax instead of smoking weed.

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OC Weekly Editor Joins Chapman University Faculty Ranks

Richard Horgan — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:45:10 +0000

Gustavo Arellano has a solid piece today in the OC Weekly about the civil unrest in his hometown, titled “Anaheim’s Tragic Kingdom.” But he’s also in the news for another reason.

Per an item in the OC Register, the OC Weekly editor will be teaching journalism this fall at his Alma Mater Chapman University:

Arellano, known for his award-winning “¡Ask a Mexican!” column, will teach a journalism class for staffers of The Panther student newspaper… He has taught classes in the Department of Chicano and Chicana Studies at Cal State Fullerton for the past two years and previously taught at UC Irvine and UCLA.

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Gustavo Arellano Takes His Taco Act to Chelsea Lately

Richard Horgan — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:20:03 +0000

When we first wrote about OC Weekly editor Gustavo Arellano’s great book Taco USA, we noted that he was having no trouble drumming up publicity. Tonight, that statement reaches a new level of “truthiness” thanks to his scheduled appearance on Chelsea Lately. Per Arellano:

Rest assured, we’re not just going to gab on a couch. There will be eating and drinking and Chuy, and hopefully it’ll be better than my laughable appearance on The Colbert Report in 2006. Tune in TONIGHT!!!!

This definitely rates as must-si TV, so set your DVRs. And honestly, any author who manages to chat with both Don Imus and Chelsea Handler about a food history book has covered all the PR bases.

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OC Weekly Editor Connects Doritos to Disneyland

Richard Horgan — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:15:46 +0000

Gustavo Arellano, an editor at OC Weekly, is having no trouble drumming up publicity for his new book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. On the heels of an April 18 LA Times piece and April 30 item in the New York Times comes today’s Q&A in the Orange County Register.

When his agent first suggested an overview of how Mexican food has evolved in the U.S., Arellano assumed the topic had already been covered. But to his amazement,he discovered it had only been properly documented for academic purposes. Later on, Arellano stumbled across an untold bit of Mexican OC food lore:

“On the local scene, the best example [of what I learned] was discovering how Doritos were invented at Disneyland by workers at Alex Foods, a Mexican-food company based in Anaheim run by the Morales family.

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