Ed Padgett, the founder and chief contributor to the blog The Los Angeles Times Pressmen’s 20 Year Club, got canned last week. No reason has been given, but it’s worth noting that Padgett’s blogging has long been a thorn in the sides of LA Times execs. A union activist, Padget frequently rallied for employee rights and openly discussed the inner workings of the LA Times Operations department on his website.

Padgett announced the termination today on his blog:

After working thirty-nine years, four months, and nine days for the Los Angeles Times I was informed over the phone by human resources that I was terminated on Monday December 12th, 2011. I had no clue I was under investigation, so it came as a shock to learn I was being investigated by human resources and terminated upon the completion of the so-called investigation.

I’m not at liberty to share why I was terminated or what my actions in response will be at this time; so stay tuned as this unfolds.

Whatever the reason, the LA Times has just lost yet another dedicated and hardworking employee who cared deeply about the future of journalism. A damn shame.

Science and medical writer Thomas Maugh is retiring after 26 years at the Los Angeles Times. His last day will be August 31st, and as LA Observed notes, his departure doesn’t bode well for the paper’s science coverage:

Maugh, a steady hand on topics from planetary discoveries to presidential health crises to archaeology, is the last link to the years when the Times competed internationally on science coverage, had a significant weekly package and prototyped a section to rival the NYT’s Science Times. Those ambitions were dropped long ago, partly cost-cutting and partly editorial choice, despite the major presence of science, health and technology institutions in Southern California. The LAT’s science “page” this past Saturday was a sorry-looking half-page that was easily overlooked.

LA Observed also predicts we’ll be hearing about more newsroom departures soon, with well-paid writers rumored to be under pressure to take buyouts by the month’s end.

NBA writer Mark Heisler, a 32-year veteran of the LA Times, was among those laid off last week, and he’s taking it in stride. In an essay published today on Romenesko, he reflects on the newspaper’s skill at shedding employees:

I got the bad news last Wednesday in Ocean City, N.J., on vacation.

These days, worse things can happen to you. My friend, Dan McGrath, the former Tribune sports editor, was told in person–then frog-marched out of the building by an escort, presumably to keep him from getting to his computer, downloading the next day’s budget and selling it to the Sun-Times.

So, getting told over the phone was OK with me!

Read more

LA Times reporter Robin Abcarian appeared on the Today Show last week to discuss how the paper broke the news of Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s extramarital affair and love child.

Towards the end of the interview, Matt Lauer asked if the LA Times felt vindicated by the story, since the paper took a lot of heat in 2003 for reporting on Schwarzenegger’s history of sexual harassment.

Read more

Ronnie Pineda, union president of Local 140-N, the LA Times pressmen’s chapter, suffered a heart attack on Friday night. Ed Padgett reported on Saturday that Pineda “is resting in the hospital with his wife Diane at his side.”

While not sure of his current condition, we’re optimistic. Pressmen are made of sturdy stuff.

Photo swiped from Mr. Pineda’s facebook page.

Like most of the LA media world, ourselves included, LA Times editor Geoffrey Mohan was not impressed with the New York Times‘ extremely belated piece on the struggles at the LA Times under Tribune Company ownership. So he decided to let the NYT know about his displeasure, penning a letter to the paper that he CC’d to Romenesko and the Columbia Journalism Review.

A taste:

I was shocked today (1/24/11) to find there are people who gripe about the good old days in Los Angeles, and I thank the New York Times for visiting our city to tell us they were here. Equally, I thank you for couching your astonishing discovery with dismissals of the late accomplishments of the bemoaned Los Angeles Times.

“Never mind,” Jeremy Peters instructs, that “The [Los Angeles] Times is considered a front-runner to win a Pulitzer Prize this year for its coverage of city officials in Bell who gave themselves enormous salaries, a story that tapped into a growing national outrage over wasteful government spending.

“Or that it still maintains, despite all the bloodletting since the paper was bought in 2000 by the Tribune Company, 13 foreign bureaus, more than any other large metropolitan daily except The Washington Post.

“Or that it is the only big-city daily that still employs a battalion of correspondents stationed in cities across the country.

What matters, apparently, is that a 66-year-old merchant in a “quaint” neighborhood misses “the old Hollywood starlets and socialites who graced the society pages.” For that, we are not the “world-class paper” that we used to be.

Read more

It took them long enough, but the LA Times finally ran a couple of pieces in the past two days on the huge story that’s been sitting in their backyard: MOCA commissioning then whitewashing a mural by Italian street artist Blu, months before an upcoming street art show. The Downtown News broke the story last week.

As FBLA predicted, the story is starting to blow up. Aside from the LA Times, the New York Times Arts Beat blog wrote a small blurb on Monday. The Guardian picked up on the LA Times‘ reporting and ran a blog item. One would imagine the story would makes its way across Europe soon enough. So there you go.

Previously on FBLA: Whitewash at MOCA: Downtown News Breaks Story Waiting to Go National

An article in Friday’s LA Times about the gentrification of Echo Park struck some of us as a wee bit tone deaf. It struck LA Weekly music editor (and Los Feliz resident) Gustavo Turner as “an epically LULZy article that seems to come from a different dimension where aliens from an unknown galaxy (Sherman Oaks?) have landed in Echo Park with a guidebook from 1978 warning them about cholo-on-cholo crime, but are chuffed that the neighborhood is really a haven for whites who enjoy mixologists and other Stuff White People Like.”

We recommend reading Turner’s gentle, mocking critique in its entirety, but have included highlights below:

LA Times: Changes to the area have reached a tipping point in the last two years as a new wave of upscale destinations opened their doors to the area’s ever-increasing population of artists, musicians and loafers.

Turner: “New wave”? “Hip party people”? What, “pepped-up hepsters looking for a happening that would freak them out” was taken? Did the Times hire Z-Man Bartell as a line editor when we weren’t looking? Also, “loafers”? “LOAFERS”?

Read more

The LA Times Magazine and Image are going to be getting new makeovers. Starting in January, both LA Times inserts ventures will be getting design “upgrades,” according to a press release, as well as “increased online features reflecting enhanced fashion, beauty, shopping and style content.” LA Times Magazine, which is now only distributed to select, (read wealthy) zip codes, will also be made more widely available.

Here’s hoping the new online fashion focus doesn’t push some of the more broad, interesting content out of the book. Image has always been about fashion, but the LA Times Mag has been aspiring to much more in recent months. We’ve especially been digging Annie Jacobsen‘s series of “Back/Story” pieces–revealing odd, untold tales about the region’s history. This month’s “Road to Area 51,” about the famous military black site, is a great read.

Press release after the jump:

Read more

Leo Wolinsky has been let go as editor of the Daily Variety after only 10 months on the job. Before coming to Variety, he worked at the LA Times for over three decades. The hiring of Wolinsky by the struggling Hollywood trade was seen as an effort to bring a hard news credibility … Oh, who are we kidding. Nikki Finke‘s version of the Wolinsky tale is so much more interesting than our own:

As I wrote back on December 8th, why in the world would that newspaper’s errand boy be named editor of Daily Variety (both the LA and NY editions) because the guy knew nothing about the entertainment biz… He was long considered a joke at the LA Times and infamous for secretly helping wrangle billionaire potential local backers like Eli Broad, Ron Burkle, Richard Riordan, and David Geffen when then bigwig editors were fighting with Tribune Co. (Finke/LA Weekly: Baquet’s Billionaire Boys Club). He briefly sat atop the LA Times‘ entertainment and feature sections as a seat-filler until he was let go. Nevertheless, Wolinsky was made responsible for all Variety editorial content for the print edition and began January 2010 reporting to Variety Group editor Tim Gray.

If memory serves, that LA Weekly story of Nikki’s won an award or two.