{"id":278,"date":"2006-11-07T16:56:46","date_gmt":"2006-11-07T23:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=278"},"modified":"2008-01-21T14:58:04","modified_gmt":"2008-01-21T22:58:04","slug":"the-last-straw-at-the-los-angeles-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=278","title":{"rendered":"The Last Straw At The Los Angeles Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wall Street Journal<\/a> (via L.A. Observed<\/a>) just reported that the Los Angeles Times has fired its editor, Dean Baquet. The Times parent, Tribune Company, has been on a mission to eviscerate what remains of the paper by slashing personnel. A month ago they fired the publisher, Jeff Johnson, for refusing to go along with the cuts. Baquet tenuously agreed to stay on in the hopes that he could forestall any further newsroom terminations.<\/p>\n

The new publisher, David Hiller, made the announcement after the news was leaked to the Journal. This smells like an attempt to lose the story in the thick of election night madness. But this story is only going to grow. After the Johnson firing, three top editors (Doug Frantz, Leo Wolinsky, and John Montorio) promised to resign<\/a> if management pushed Baquet out as well. We’ll see if they are true to their words.<\/p>\n

Baquet will be replaced by James O’Shea, managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, where Hiller had come from. Obviously they are stuffing the deck with ringers from the home office, probably with the intent to sell the hollowed-out shell of a newspaper to another hack conglomerate. It’s unclear what they will have to offer a buyer without an editorial staff.<\/p>\n

They won’t have much of a subscriber base either. For the six-month period ending September 2006, the Times circulation delined<\/a> 8%, the largest drop in the industry. And they are about to lose even more. Aside from me, there is already a Subscriber Revolt<\/a> site set up to put the paper on notice. Here is an excerpt of the letter you can send via this site:<\/p>\n

“I am a Los Angeles Times reader who has watched with dismay the attempts of the Tribune Co. to squeeze ever-higher profits from my newspaper by slashing its ability to gather and publish news…..The Times is our irreplaceable civic resource, and I will not sit back as you dismantle it.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The letter includes an explicit threat to cancel by December 31, if Baquet is not reinstated and other remedial steps are not taken. I’m not sure I can wait that long.<\/p>\n

This paper can be saved if Tribune would sell it to local operators. There has been interest<\/a> from folks like Eli Broad, Ron Burkle and David Geffen. Any one of them would be an improvement over Tribune. An even better plan would be for an academic institution to purchase the paper and run it as a not-prifit. But it will never be worth a damn if Tribune is allowed to carry out its destructive and short-sighted agenda.<\/p>\n

And we can stop them: Subscriber Revolt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wall Street Journal (via L.A. Observed) just reported that the Los Angeles Times has fired its editor, Dean Baquet. The Times parent, Tribune Company, has been on a mission to eviscerate what remains of the paper by slashing personnel. A month ago they fired the publisher, Jeff Johnson, for refusing to go along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[212,211,213,61],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-david-hiller","tag-dean-baquet","tag-james-oshea","tag-los-angeles-times"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-4u","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=249","url_meta":{"origin":278,"position":0},"title":"Lights Out At The L.A. Times?","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/7\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The turmoil continues at the Los Angeles Times where the Chicago mob (Tribune) is exerting more pressure. Starting with the announcement that the publisher, Jeff Johnson, has been fired and replaced by mob boss, David Hiller. Nikke Finke has the goods on Hiller, whom the Times has soft-peddled as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":762,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=762","url_meta":{"origin":278,"position":1},"title":"Another Head Rolls At The Los Angeles Times","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/21\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Los Angeles Times is about to get its fourth editor in less than three years. News has leaked from the Times' newsroom that editor James O'Shea has been sacked for the same reason three of his predecessors were ushered out. O'Shea, who was air-dropped in from the Chicago hive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=418","url_meta":{"origin":278,"position":2},"title":"Los Angeles Times Book Festers","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/24\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"On April 28-29, The Los Angeles Times will hold its 12th annual Festival of Books. The event is one of the largest book fairs in the country and features over 400 authors and almost 100 panels on subjects ranging from \"Food Fight: When Did Eating Get Controversial?\" to \"Sands of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":316,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=316","url_meta":{"origin":278,"position":3},"title":"A Declaration Of Independence From The Los Angeles Times","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/3\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Human beings are creatures of habit. We find great comfort in familiar surroundings and established routines. That's why, despite the abundance of persuasions, it is still difficult to break free from a decades long ritual of breakfast with the Los Angeles Times. Difficult, but not impossible. The time has now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":386,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=386","url_meta":{"origin":278,"position":4},"title":"The Days Of Our Los Angeles Times","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/22\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of weeks ago the Los Angeles Times announced that they were going to invite guests to edit their opinion section, Current. My initial response was that it was a terrible idea that trivialized the tradition of commentary in journalism. That impression was affirmed when they revealed that film\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=512","url_meta":{"origin":278,"position":5},"title":"New York Times Spanks Itself","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/9\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever since 9\/11, much of the media has engaged in a brand of journalism that more closely resembled stenography. It consisted mainly of uncritically regurgitating White House misrepresentations of foreign policy and terrorist threats. This failure on the part of the fourth estate resulted in such travesties as the war\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}