22 skidoo

The news was expected. The Daily News of Los Angeles will eliminate 22 newsroom jobs on Friday. According to this post from LA Observed, Editor Ron Kaye "persuaded" owner Dean Singleton not to cut any deeper, saving 10 jobs that were on the line.

The question is, what did Kaye have to trade to persuade? Will those 10 pink slips find their way to other Singleton newsrooms in Southern California? That's what has always happened in the past. Or are these jobs still on the line pending better revenues or buyouts or salary cuts?

This is part of a continuing strategy to transform the cluster of papers Singleton owns into a single entity. Why preserve the Daily News newsroom when you can use copy from the Daily Breeze and the San Bernardino County Sun to plug the holes?

This is assembly-line journalism ala MediaNews, and it's been a long time in the making. I'm surprised that anyone is still surprised at what is happening at these papers.