Gravity assaults America's newspaper

This picture of the fallen "U" from USA Today's Virginia headquarters does a fair job summing up the kind of year the newspaper industry has had.

Perspective

Sure Rod Blogajevich is a fool. But he's a lightweight when compared to the political monsters of old. In Peter Green's book "The Hellenistic Age" you can read about a time when politicians turned bad decision-making into an art. Here's an excerpt from a short review in today's New York Times:

Before he became Ptolemy, Physcon married his brother’s wife and, on their wedding night, had her child (a potential rival) killed. The happy couple had a son of their own; when the boy was 12, Physcon had him dismembered and sent the pieces to the mother, legendarily on her birthday. He promoted mob rule and civil war, earning the nickname Kakergetes (”Malefactor”). His purges of intellectuals destroyed Alexandria’s famed cultural life for a century. Green writes: “This Ptolemy had huge appetites for power and every kind of sensual gratification, no moral restraints of any kind, an alarming mixture of political shrewdness and megalomaniac fantasy, and enough wealth to satisfy his every whim.” Oh yes, he also hated Jews.

Out with the old

As struggling newspapers start to hack away at bone, some of the shining stars of yesteryear are getting hit with the knife. Last month, the New York Observer dropped columnist Nicholas von Hoffman. On Tuesday, the Village Voice gave columnist Nat Hentoff the pink slip.

On a personal/professional note: I've booked von Hoffman on "To The Point" a couple times in the last year to offer his curmudgeonly wisdom and perspective to the presidential race. I've never booked Hentoff, but he spoke up for TTP when WNYC dropped it from its schedule earlier this year.

Berthelsen lands at the DJ*, **

Just three weeks after Alan Mittelstaedt quit his job as associate editor of the Los Angeles Daily Journal over differences with the new boss, the paper has named his replacement.

Christian Berthelsen, recently laid off from the Los Angeles Times' Orange County bureau, will take the editing reins at the legal journal. Berthelsen distinguished himself as an investigative reporter at the Times and even did a stint in the paper's Baghdad bureau, but this will be his first gig as an editor. Berthelsen worked at the San Francisco Chronicle before coming to the Times.

*UPDATE: A 1996 story from AJR says Berthelsen worked at City News Services, which apparently is where he met DJ Managing Editor David Houston. It also mentions Berthelsen's father, John Berthelsen, who covered Vietnam for Newsweek and did reporting for the Sacramento Bee.

**UPDATE II: A bit more background on Berthelsen... He actually did two stints in the LAT's Baghdad bureau... Before heading to the Chronicle he did a fair bit of reporting for local publications, working for CNS, the Santa Monica Outlook and the Glendale News-Press. He also freelanced for the New York Times and, in 2002, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Year of the Kicked Dog

I can't help but thinking that the wisdom of Loosen the Leash, namely that beating a dog gets you and the dog nowhere, should be required teaching for authorities of all stripes - from prison guards to police, from foreign governments to vice presidents.

Don't get crazy in Inglewood

The Los Angeles Times investigates the alarming number of unarmed people shot to death by Inglewood police officers, including a schizophrenic man who was shot four times in the back while reaching down to pull up his pants.

From the LAT:

Over the last six years, Inglewood police officers have repeatedly resorted to physical or deadly force against suspects who were unarmed or accused of minor offenses, a Times investigation found.

In the span of four months this year, Inglewood officers shot and killed four people, three of them unarmed. The Times' review of court documents, law enforcement records and interviews shows that the problem is not new.

Trading in our futures

Today is Day Two in the Washington Post's three-part series called "What Went Wrong?" about the smarty pants who combined their faith in capitalism, their faculty in mathematics and their facility with computers to fashion the highly complex and highly leveraged derivatives market that helped implode the global financial system.

The story begins in the late 1980s at AIG with the geek squad that formed its Financial Products division... We all know how it ends.

Maybe they should sell tickets

The Los Angeles Times has closed the Globe Lobby to the public again, LA Observed reports. The decision was made to save money.

Chiang suffered chest pain

California Controller John Chiang was checked into a Fort Worth, Texas hospital on Friday after experiencing chest pains. He will undergo tests today and his office promises to send out an update of the results. Meantime, Chiang is said to be resting comfortably.

Iraq, uncovered

The Project for Excellence in Journalism did a study back in May that found coverage of the Iraq war accounted for only three percent of what American newspapers and broadcasters produced in the first months of 2008.

Now the New York Times reports that the major networks have "quietly" decided to stop sending full-time reporters to Iraq. From the story:

In Baghdad, ABC, CBS and NBC still maintain skeleton bureaus in heavily fortified compounds. Correspondents rotate in and out when stories warrant, and with producers and Iraqi employees remaining in Baghdad, the networks can still react to breaking news. But employees who are familiar with the staffing pressures of the networks say the bureaus are a shadow of what they used to be. Some of the offices have only one Western staff member.

The staff cuts appear to be the latest evidence of budget pressures at the networks. And those pressures are not unique to television: many newspapers and magazines have also curtailed their presence in Baghdad. As a consequence, the war is gradually fading from television screens, newspapers and, some worry, the consciousness of the American public.

As network and cable news outlets cut back in one war zone, there has been no corresponding increase in coverage of our other war zone - the one that's supposed to be the real frontline in the war on terror. Until CNN recently sent a full-time reporter to Afghanistan, no major television or cable news outlet had a full-time bureau there.

(via Romensko)

Ho-Ho-Hold On To Your Savings*, **

As employees in Singleton's LANG group tried to turn the page on an ugly 2008, they were greeted with a grinchly memo regarding their retirement plans - dated, fittingly, Christmas Eve.

The memo, from VP of Human Resources Charles Kamen, says MediaNews will suspend its contributions to employee 401k plans for the whole of 2009, with the hope that contributions will resume in 2010. Here's the relevant passage:

In an effort to operate our business as cost effectively as possible, the Company has made the decision to suspend all Company contributions and matches to the 401k Plan for 2009.

With you support and continued efforts, I am hopeful that we can resume the Company contributions in 2010.

*The Dec. 24th memo was posted on walls and doors inside the Daily Breeze office today. Checking to see if other LANGers got the news in a similarly indirect manner.

**UPDATE: The memo were indeed posted in other newsrooms. I'm also told the decision to eliminate the contribution only affects non-unionized employees, since the union contract mandates a match.

Sanchez squared

A light and fluffy portrait of California Reps. Loretta and Linda Sanchez in Friday's New York Times (via LA Observed).

Who could forget this little dust-up?:

In 2007, Loretta resigned from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus when Representative Joe Baca of California became its chairman, partly because she was angry about reports that Mr. Baca had called her a “whore” at an event for Latino state legislators. He denied making the insult.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about us,” Loretta Sanchez said during a separate interview in her office, which is a flight of stairs away from her sister’s. “Like that I’m the one that goes out and parties and stuff. And I’m actually the one that, like, goes home and sleeps and gets up in the morning and goes to the gym.”

A buyer for IndyMac

Tis the season for fire sales, and Dune Capital Management has seized the moment to buy up the failed lender IndyMac Bancorp for an undisclosed amount. Dune Capital is run by a couple former Goldman Sachs partners, who might dip into TARP funds to seal the deal.

News of the sale comes from Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter via LA Biz Observed.

The Implode-O-Meter also links to this fun fact from Michael Hodges at Grandfather Economic Report:

America has become more a debt ' junkie'than ever before with total debt of $53 Trillion- and the highest debt ratio in history. That's $175,154 per man, woman and child - or $700,616 per family of 4, $33,781 more debt per family than last year.

Harold Pinter has died

“It’s about performance and economy of gesture.”

Xmas schedule

Holiday cheer sometimes makes it hard to type. Expect less of me over the next few days.

Tribune Co. employees get seat at bankruptcy table

The union representing employees at the Baltimore Sun was given a seat on the committee that will speak for creditors in the Tribune Co. bankruptcy proceedings:

The relatively unusual inclusion of a union on a creditors' committee follows the Guild's success last week in securing Tribune's commitment to pay promised severance and health care benefits to employees who recently accepted a company buy-out.

-snip-

Other members of the creditors' committee include major banks and suppliers, including JPMorgan Chase Bank, Merrill Lynch Capital Corp., Deutsche Bank Trust, Warner Bros. Television, Vertis and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

Tribune Co. employees have a lot at stake in the bankruptcy given the fact that their pension plan was used as collateral to finance Sam Zell's purchase of the company.

Chu makes it official

Judy Chu, chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization, announced today she will run for the congressional seat now held by Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte. Solis is President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Labor.

Chu released the following statement minutes ago:

Today I am announcing my intention to run for the seat representing the 32nd Congressional District, parts of which I have represented for the last 23 years.

In the past few days I have received many encouraging calls and e-mails from supporters and constituents urging me to run and I have decided to heed those calls.

I have a long history of being a coalition builder, with a track record of working well with others to fight for change. I have successfully passed bills protecting working class families. I’ve successfully tackled budget deficit problems through my tax amnesty bill, and through my work at the helm of the BOE, the main revenue generating agency of the state of California.

I believe my experience is what this country needs at this most crucial point in our nation’s history.

Over the weekend, the Sacramento Bee reported that the brothers Calderon - Ron and Charles - might have their eyes on the seat as well. But Chu and state Sen. Gloria Romero are the clear favorites, since they have both represented large portions of the 32nd and are better known there than the Calderons. Romero, D-East Los Angeles, threw her hat in the ring within hours of the Solis announcement.

Chu and Romero have had a tense relationship at times over the years. In 1998, the two women faced off in a race for the state Assembly. Romero won out.

Magical accounting at IndyMac

The Office of Thrift Supervision has "removed" a top banking regulator for allowing IndyMac Bancrop to use accounting gimmickry to cover up its financial frailty. The Washington Post reports:

A senior federal banking regulator has been removed from his job after government investigators concluded that he knowingly permitted IndyMac Bancorp to present a misleading picture of its financial health in a federal filing only months before the California thrift was seized by regulators.

The Office of Thrift Supervision removed Darrel Dochow as director of its western region, where he was responsible for regulating several of the largest banks that failed or were sold in the past year, including Washington Mutual, Countrywide Financial, IndyMac and Downey Savings and Loan.

-snip-

Dochow was appointed regional director in September 2007 after serving as the No. 2 in the western region. He was paid $230,000 in 2007, according to government records. Dochow got the job shortly after playing a leading role in persuading Countrywide to move under OTS supervision, a major coup for the agency, which is funded by fees from the companies it oversees.

In the late 1980s, Dochow had been the chief career supervisor of the savings-and-loan industry, and federal investigators later concluded he played a key role in the collapse of Charles Keating's Lincoln Savings and Loan by delaying and impeding proper oversight of that thrift's operations.

Gee, it's hard to imagine what went wrong...

At the time of IndyMac's failure, which has cost taxpayers $8.9 billion, the head of the OTS, John Reich, pinned the blame on Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York. Reich said Schumer scared investors with a letter raising questions about the bank's solvency. When asked about Dochow's role in the bank's collapse, Reich "described Dochow's actions as a 'relatively small factor in the events leading to the failure of IndyMac,'" according to the Post.

Three from ProPublica

The number of collaborative stories between the nonprofit newsroom of ProPublica and traditional newspapers seems to be on a steady rise. Here are two examples involving the San Diego Union-Tribune and the New York Times, respectively, and a third story ProPublica reported on its own:

Polluting our life line

The bribery business plan

Down and dirty at the SEC

Sunday shorties

Just wait til he gets to Ed Rendell

Obama's opaque transparency

Theater of the absurd

The whole week off

Madoff's scheme extended to San Marino

The investment scheme put in motion by Bernard Madoff reached around the world, according to a New York Times investigation, so perhaps it's no surprise that it has at least one link to the exclusive city of San Marino, a bastion of wealth in the western San Gabriel Valley and a gateway to trade with Asia. According to the article, Matthew Brown, son of a former San Marino mayor, did marketing for an investment firm that did big business with Madoff and helped him attract Asian investors.

New year's ultimatum

Dean Singleton has given the unions representing about 1,230 employees at the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News until Jan. 16 to agree to $20 million in cuts or face "even worse consequences." Singleton apparently needs the savings so he can renegotiate terms on $130 million in loans.

Remember the titans

Once upon a time, giants roamed the land. They stomped and they crushed, and sometimes needed advice - other times they needed Ferraris. But soon they became too big to fail and found out what they really needed was a bailout. And so it turned out they weren't giants after all.

Take that, Gavin

California Attorney General Jerry Brown today asked the state Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, arguing that the gay marriage ban deprives people of a constitutional right, something that cannot be done through the normal initiative process. Prop 8 backers call Brown's action "outrageous," the LAT reports.

For whom the bell curve tolls

Gary Langer, polling director for ABC News, marks the passing of the Los Angeles Times' polling unit, a victim of Tribune Co. budget cuts. The Times put out its final poll nine days ago; it was an analysis of the growing economic uncertainty felt by many Americans in this economic recession*. The Times poll started 31 years ago and has been overseen by Susan Pinkus since 1995. She and her staff are being laid off.

Langer writes:

Does the loss of a single polling outfit matter? If it’s a good one, sure it does. Even when well done, a single poll often is insufficient to illuminate public opinion fully; like a flashlight on the road, it takes a bunch of them, shining in the same direction, to show the way. Without the L.A. Times Poll, our path forward will be a little less well-lighted.

*A link to the poll results. Americans are very down on Wall Street firms handing out bonuses this year.

Eclectic surf

And a salami shall light their way ... Being your own big brother ... Death in the downturn ... GOP unbalanced ... Race in the storm ... Madoff in the mirror

Solis for labor secretary*

President-elect Barack Obama has tapped Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, to be his secretary of labor, AP is reporting:

The Democratic congresswoman was just elected to her fifth term representing heavily Hispanic portions of eastern Los Angeles County and east L.A. She is the daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants and has been the only member of Congress of Central American descent.

*Assuming Solis is Obama's choice to head the Labor department, speculation season begins in the 32nd Congressional District on who will run to replace her. State Sen. Gloria Romero? State Sen. Gil Cedillo? County Supervisor Gloria Molina? Board of Equalization member Judy Chu? There's also Assemblyman Ed Hernandez...

UPDATE: Politico confirms the AP report, and includes more background on Solis' union ties.

UPDATE II: Looks like BOE member Chu is interested. From her official statement: "In regards to who will succeed her in Congress, it is still too early to speculate. However, I am considering any and all possibilities." Romero is in, the PSN reports, and Hernandez is interested, too.

End of the road

The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce has upheld the California Coastal Commission's decision to reject a 16-mile toll road that would have cut through San Onofre State Beach.

Eyes wide shut

The shrinking ranks of the DC press corps is the latest from New York Times media reporter Richard Perez-Pena:

“We used to cover the Pentagon, combing through defense contracts, and we’re covering some of that out of Dallas now, but basically we don’t do it anymore,” said Carl Leubsdorf, chief of The Dallas Morning News bureau, which had 11 people four years ago, and now has four. “We had someone at the Justice Department, but no longer. We can’t free someone up for a long time to do a major project.”

-snip-

There are no definitive figures on the number of newspaper reporters covering Washington, but the decline has been clear, and it runs counter to history, said Donald A. Ritchie, associate Senate historian and author of the book “Reporting From Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps.”

“In times of great change and crisis, usually the press corps grows,” he said. Despite the strain of the Depression, he said, “When F.D.R. took office, newspapers sent far more people to Washington.”

Pair this news with the warning from Helene Cooper that the Obama White House might continue the Bush strategy of bypassing the shrinking media. Talking directly to the people usually means talking to people you already agree with and ignoring thorny questions. How has that worked out?

Big bond, no bid

Just as the state brings its public works projects to a halt, the City of Industry prepares to ask its 82 registered voters to approve a $500 million bond. The money would pay for infrastructure around billionaire Ed Roski's NFL stadium of dreams. As of yet, no NFL team has agreed to move there.

Industry officials also want voters to end the pesky requirement of awarding contracts to the lowest bidder, which could come in handy if and when they start spending that half billion. They also want voters to bar anyone without a permanent address from voting in future elections.

(San Gabriel Valley Tribune via LA Observed)

Just try to leave

The Grapevine (Interstate 5) and the Cajon Pass (Interstate 15) are both closed due to snow, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Rainy day shorts

MTA chief Roger Snoble is stepping down.

CalPERS is warning California cities that they might have to pay more to cover the pension fund's losses.

A cloud-source police scanner for New York.

Democratic lawmakers in California want to raise taxes without Republican interference.

Company for the miserable

It's not surprising that a majority of Americans are worried about the economy - 63 percent say it's in a long-term decline, according to an ABC News poll out today. What is surprising is the number of people who say they're feeling the pinch. From the ABC poll (paraphrased):

63 percent say they've been hurt by the recession; three in 10 say they've been hurt "a great deal"

51 percent say they've been hit by the stock market collapse

Two-thirds are worried about maintaining their standard of living (74 percent of women vs. 57 percent of men)

27 percent say someone in their household has had their pay or work hours cut; 18 percent say someone in their household has lost a job

21 percent worry they'll lose their job, and almost half think they'd be unable to find as good a job if they had to look

53 percent are worried about health care (59 percent of women vs. 46 percent of men); 75 percent of lower-income Americans worry about health care

15 percent have fallen behind on the mortgage or the rent; 37 percent are worried they will (the numbers are highest for women, lower income and those under 40)
57 percent say they'll spend less this Christmas

24 percent approve of Bush's handling of the economic crisis; 23 percent approve of the overall response; 55 percent say Obama's off to a good start, but just over half think he can do anything about it

New DJ editor and other shuffling

David Houston, newly named editor of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, announced a few staffing changes in a morning memo: Alexia Garamfalvi will succeed Houston as editor in the legal journal's San Francisco office; a search is on to replace associate editor Alan Mittelstaedt, who resigned yesterday; and a few empty beats will be eliminated, including city politics and land use, but no layoffs are contemplated. Read the memo here.

Mittelstaedt out at DJ

Alan Mittelstaedt has quit his job as associate editor of the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He gave notice this morning.

Mittelstaedt's sudden departure caps a tumultuous few weeks at the legal paper, starting with the ouster of Editor Marty Berg. It was Berg who hired Mittelstaedt back in August, with the hope that he'd bring with him the muckraking journalism he'd practiced at LA CityBeat and the LA Weekly.

From all accounts Mittelstaedt was popular with the reporting staff, but he decided to move on after a change in editorial leadership.

The movable copy desk

The six papers that make up the "Inland Division" of LANG are consolidating their copy desk functions in January to create a single uber-desk that will be based in West Covina. That means shipping the copy editors that serve the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, San Bernardino Sun and Redlands Daily Facts about 40 miles to the west and combining them with the copy editors that serve the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News.

No telling if they'll all survive the journey.

If this sounds familiar, it's because LANG has tried this before - just over a year ago, in fact. Only the movement was eastward. In August 2007 LANG shipped the San Gabriel Valley copy editors to San Bernardino. Five months later, the San Gabriel Valley copy desk was reestablished and the copy editors moved back.

AP on byline strike

Associated Press reporters and photographers are withholding their bylines from articles and photos to protest what they deem to be an unfair contract proposal that would freeze wages and raise health care costs.

Becerra stays put

Rep. Xavier Becerra announced today that he plans to remain in Congress, rather than take on the job of U.S. Trade Representative under President Barack Obama. Here's a portion of a statement his office put out today:

This evening Representative Xavier Becerra (CA-31) announced his intentions to continue his service as the representative of California’s 31st Congressional District and to devote his energies to the challenges ahead of him as the incoming Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus and as a senior member of the House Committee on Ways and Means.

-snip-

“Working for and with incoming President Barack Obama would be an opportunity of a lifetime. I will get to experience that thrill… by working by his side in the People’s House just down the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

Cortines gets the job

The Los Angeles Unified school board has named Ramon Cortines as the new superintendent of schools, replacing David Brewer. From City News Service:

Cortines agreed to a three-year contract and will take over as superintendent on Jan. 1. The board's vote to hire him was unanimous. Contract terms were not immediately available.

Three days a week

It's official. The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News announced today they will cut home delivery service from 7 days a week to three. Readers will now only be able to get the paper on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

From ClickonDetroit.com:

The papers, which are being redesigned, still will be printed and sold at newsstands every day. The partnership [that operates the two papers] said subscribers would have daily access to electronic editions that would be copies of the printed edition for a flat rate of $12 a month.

The plan also calls for laying off up to 9 percent of the workforce.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed rumors of the cutbacks last week.

Closed session with Jesus

Jennifer McLain, a reporter at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, notices that at least one city on her beat continues to open its council meetings with a Christian prayer, despite a 6-year-old court decision that said the practice is blatantly unconstitutional. She also observes that no one seems to mind and then asks whether its worth writing about.

If she's looking for an angle, she need only scroll down to the comments section where West Covina Councilman Mike Touhey makes a semi-literate argument for why his city invokes Jesus' name before discussing zoning ordinance amendments. It's because of the Gregorian calendar.

Sectarian prayer isn't the only legally dubious part of West Covina's council meetings. The agenda outlines strict rules of decorum for audience members backed up with vague threats of prosecution. Even weirder, the agenda asserts that council members can force those who choose to speak to swear an oath under threat of perjury.

Rain day

It must be the weather: The Internet filter at the Los Angeles Daily Journal is temporarily down.

(Note: I'd mistakenly reported earlier that the filter was down for good, but that too was merely a temporary reprieve from the DJ's electronic censors.)

New publication on the peninsula

Joshua Stecker, former editor of the now shuttered San Pedro Magazine, which was published by the Long Beach Press-Telegram, sent around an email announcing the launch of an independent magazine called San Pedro Today that will cover many of the same issues, but without the corporate interference. From the email:

Getting laid off is never fun or easy, but what's worse than me losing my job is watching the two newspapers that serve San Pedro officially abandoning our area. First it was MORE, now San Pedro Magazine.

Well, I wasn't going to sit idly by and let my hometown lose a magazine that was hugely popular, profitable, well-respected and incredibly fun to produce.

-snip-

Premiering the week of January 5, 2009, San Pedro Today will have the same great 30,000 copy circulation (still the largest circulated publication in San Pedro), free home delivery to homes and condos, the beautiful glossy cover and include all the great columnists and contributors who helped make the former publication the success it was. I’m taking the best parts of what made San Pedro Magazine great and enhancing it with all the features I wanted to do but could never get done working for my former corporation.

Singleton in the Times

The decline of the Los Angeles Times is an important media story, but if you want to know what the future of journalism looks like, take a gander at Dean Singleton's MediaNews empire. Fortunately, if belatedly, the New York Times does just that in a Sunday profile of the original cut-and-consolidater - a story no doubt inspired by the recent downgrading of MediaNews' debt.

Singleton sees silver linings in the grey clouds dumping on the newspaper industry. He's especially sanguine about the San Jose Mercucy News, which he says will bounce back once the economy turns around. Nevertheless, the story paints an appropriately grim picture of the state of things:

Already known for squeezing costs as hard as anyone in the industry, Mr. Singleton and his team have cut spending at a furious pace, trying to keep pace with tumbling revenue. His detractors among analysts and journalists concede that in this market, any owner would have to make deep cuts. But they say that he was already inclined to a slash-and-burn approach that is little more than a prescription for having the papers do steadily less, and do it less well.

“There’s no newspaper in the country that I know of that’s not suffering,” said John McManus, a journalism professor at San Jose State University. “But Dean Singleton has hollowed out The Mercury News.”

-snip-

Dave Butler, the executive editor, acknowledged that the paper no longer had the ambitions it once did. Now, he said, “we’re protecting the core mission, which is good, hard local news and information.”

I don't know anyone who works for Singleton who doesn't worry about more cuts, whether it be layoffs or the elimination of home delivery service on certain days.

The trouble with free (redux)

Setting aside such questions as, 'Should journalism become a web of interlinking updates?', "Should we change the definition of journalist?', and 'Are editors an arrogant and unnecessary appendage that need to be surgically removed?', what's eating the bottom out of newspapers' bottom lines?

James Surowiecki, economics writer for the New Yorker, agrees with David Simon, former Baltimore Sun reporter and creator of "The Wire," that newspapers (and other forms of media that compete with themselves online) cannot hope to survive financially as long as they give away the news for free.

From Surowiecki's blog post:

Usually, when an industry runs into the kind of trouble that Levitt was talking about, it’s because people are abandoning its products. But people don’t use the Times less than they did a decade ago. They use it more. The difference is that today they don’t have to pay for it. The real problem for newspapers, in other words, isn’t the Internet; it’s us. We want access to everything, we want it now, and we want it for free. That’s a consumer’s dream, but eventually it’s going to collide with reality: if newspapers’ profits vanish, so will their product.

-snip-

For a while now, readers have had the best of both worlds: all the benefits of the old, high-profit regime—intensive reporting, experienced editors, and so on—and the low costs of the new one. But that situation can’t last. Soon enough, we’re going to start getting what we pay for, and we may find out just how little that is.

I've argued before that giving away the news for free affects more than profit. It diminishes the value of news - and of newsrooms - in the minds of both the reader and the owner; and, to some extent, in the mind of the reporter.

*UPDATE: Brian Till indicts himself as a media murderer in a column in the Las Vegas Sun (via Romenesko).

The 24-hour diplomacy cycle

Did Google make our foreign policy stupid?

In an interview this morning, Former Sec. of State Colin Powell told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he brought the State Department into the "electronic age" when he bought 44,000 computers and encouraged his staff to rely more on websites than books to do their jobs.

From the transcript:

And I used to tell them, get rid of all the books in your office. You don't need them anymore, as long as you have a couple of search engines and Wikipedia. And then I challenged my people to try to keep up with Wikipedia in terms of changes in countries. That was a challenge.

But I believe the electronic age has fundamentally changed the way in which we do business in every aspect of human life, but in diplomacy and politics as well -- instantaneous transmission of information, instantaneous knowledge.

As I like to say, we've gone from a lunar world where you measured everything in days, weeks and months, to a transactional world where every single transaction has to be put into your information system, into your decision system.

A State Department without the Internet and computer-literate staff would be ridiculous. But so is a State Department that stops referencing the collective wisdom of books in favor of the short-hand history of Wikipedia.

Sunday shorties

Is Madoff an abberation? Or a metaphor for the American economy?

'An eye for an eye' codified.

Hard times grows the flock.

Shoe flies.

Give me 20

MediaNews owner Dean Singleton has asked a union representing employees at the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News to reopen negotiations as he tries to find $20 million in savings from the two newspapers.

Earlier this week, Moody's Investment Services downgraded MediaNews' debt rating to Caa3, which means the company runs a"significant" risk of defaulting.

Tribune Co. adviser named

The Chicago Tribune has identified the Tribune Co. financial adviser referred to in the criminal complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Nils Larsen, Sam Zell's point man in handling the potential sale of Wrigley Field, was allegedly approached by Blagojevich's chief of staff about puring the Chicago Tribune editorial page of Blagojevich critics. Authorities claim Blagojevich threatened to withhold badly needed financial assistance from the company unless certain editorial writers were fired.

No more free tickets

The California Fair Political Practices Commission has voted to restrict the number of tickets city officials can receive for events at city-owned venues. Although the rules change came in response to complaints in Anaheim, it will affect the city of Pasadena, where the mayor and city council members receive bundles of tickets to the annual Rose Bowl Game and Rose Parade. In the past, the tickets were treated as having no value. Now they will have to be reported at face value and officials will be limited to $420 worth of tickets a year.

Extra! Extra! Detroit Papers Stop Deliveries!

The Wall Street Journal reports that Detroit's two major dailies, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, are expected to announce next week that they will curtail home delivery service. The plan is to cut back to three days a week and deliver only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

The Free Press is owned by Gannett Co., which is undergoing major staff cuts, and the News is owned by MediaNews, which has a few problems of its own. The two newspapers operate under a joint agreement.

From the Journal:

The Free Press and News would be the first dailies in a major metropolitan market to curtail home delivery and drastically scale back the print edition. More newspapers are contemplating similar moves as the erosion of advertising and rising costs of print and delivery have brought publishers to their knees. In October, the Christian Science Monitor said it will stop printing a daily newspaper in April and move instead to an online version with a weekly print product.

-snip-

The changes are likely to result in significant job cuts. Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers, recently said it was eliminating 2,000 positions as part of a 10% staff reduction. Two of its papers, USA Today and the Free Press, were not part of those reductions. Because the Detroit papers will continue to publish daily electronic versions, the cuts are expected to come mostly, if not entirely, from outside the newsroom, according to sources.

NYT's Toner has died

From the New York Times:

Robin Toner, who was the first woman to be the national political correspondent of The New York Times and who had a significant hand in the coverage of five presidential elections, innumerable Congressional and gubernatorial campaigns and the great legislative debates of the day, died early Friday at her home in Washington. She was 54.

-snip-

In 1992, Ms. Toner was The Times’s lead reporter on the election of Bill Clinton, a rollicking campaign in which her tough-minded coverage helped set the pace for other reporters. A few years later, after marriage and motherhood made long months on the campaign trail less practical for her, she became chief of correspondents on the paper’s national desk in New York, coaching reporters in bureaus around the country in their coverage of state legislatures, budget deficits (or surpluses) and assorted scandals, crises and crimes.

There's also the amazing tidbit: Toner had only half a dozen corrections in over 1,900 articles with her byline.

Budget breakdown and the GOP*

The Sacramento Bee reported earlier today that budget negotiations had broken down between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican leaders, with Republican legislators blaming the Republican governor for compromising the process.

It seems GOP leaders were enraged in anticipation of this Los Angeles Times report that says Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines had considered a tax increase as a way to close a $14 billion budget gap - California Republicans are duty bound to oppose all thoughts of tax increases.

This leak to the Times could also explain why Villines struck such a cocky posture earlier this week in a visit to the Bee's Capitol Bureau, where he demanded Democrats accede to a host of GOP demands before his caucus would even begin to consider any Democratic proposals for solving the budget crisis.

*UPDATED: Apparently yesterday's leak about Villines wasn't what got Republicans angry at the governor. Instead, it seems to be the big ticking clocks on the governor's website and in the Capitol that are tallying by day and by dollar the Legislature's "Failure to Act." However, the idea that Republicans might have to swallow new taxes remains the reason for the split between the governor and GOP lawmakers. As for Villines and the Bee Capitol Bureau, that appears to be his normal swagger.

Editor wanted?*

The Los Angeles Daily Journal has an advertisement for an editor in its Los Angeles office. But is there an opening? From what I can gather, there isn't.

*UPDATE: A commenter said the job is for an opening in San Francisco. The would make sense since David Houston left his position up there to come down here. However, the ad says the position is in Los Angeles. Here's a copy:

Editor- Daily Journal Corporation (Los Angeles, CA)
The Daily Journal is hiring an editor in Los Angeles. Successful candidates must have at least five years experience reporting and/or editing stories. Experience covering legal or business matters is preferred but not required. A graduate degree or law degree is also preferred but not required. You must be able to supervise and edit copy from a staff of six to eight highly motivated reporters, coaching junior reporters and challenging experienced ones. You must be able to guide stories from their inception through the art and layout process, including headline writing. Send a resume and at least five clips to Editor David Houston at david_houston@dailyjournal.com.

Now, it's possible the DJ plans to hire a new editor here and decide later which editor goes up to San Francisco; or that Houston changed his mind after publishing the ad; or that "in Los Angeles" is a mistake; or that "in Los Angeles" is merely meant to convey the fact that the actual hiring of the editor will take place in Los Angeles. Time will tell.

MediaNews downgraded

Moody's Investors Services has downgraded MediaNews's debt rating to Caa3, meaning the newspaper company is at a "significant risk" of defaulting on its debt obligations (via Romensko). A spokesman company said that, unlike Tribune, which just filed for bankruptcy, MediaNews is in debt to the right people.

Tribune Co. subpoenaed

Federal authorities have subpoenaed Tribune Co. records in its widening corruption investigation of Illinois Gov. Rod Blogajevich. The governor allegedly tried to pressure the company to fire Chicago Tribune editorial writers in exchange for state help in selling Wrigley Field. From Chicago Breaking News:

"As we've said before, we will fully cooperate with the government in its investigation into Gov. Blagojevich and his administration," said Gary Weitman, Tribune Co. spokesman. "As this is an ongoing criminal investigation, we will have to decline further comment."

The story notes that Tribune owner Sam Zell, spoke to CNBC yesterday, refuses to talk to his own paper.

Bad judgment

A Ventura County Superior Court judge has issued an order to block the Ventura County Star from publishing details of a gruesome murder contained in a police search warrant. Judge Kevin Riley apparently refused to hear the paper's First Amendment arguments before handing down his decision. Said Star editor Joe Howry:

"Judge Riley's illegal order is a blatant violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled time and again that no branch of government, including the judiciary, has the right to prior restraint of the publication of information, except in extreme situations such as war. Further, Judge Riley issued this order in a closed hearing that did not allow The Star any opportunity to present its case, nor did he recognize the fact that the information was already made public by another media. We will fight this illegal action vigorously."

Earlier, Judge Riley took the unusual step of sealing portions of the warrant and its supporting affidavits at the request of attorneys in the case. An appellate court overturned his decision at the Star's request.

(via LA Observed)

Tracking job cuts in California

The Sacramento Bee has an interactive database that lets readers track layoffs geographically - by city, county and state- or by company name. Here's the search page for the Los Angeles Times.

Note: The database appears to include only job cuts recorded under a 2007 state law that requires companies to give 60-day notice when laying off 50 employees or more.

What Sam said

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo today asked Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell about allegations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to pressure him to fire members of the Chicago Tribune editorial board in exchange for help in selling Wrigley Field. Zell doesn't say much, although he does acknowledge that he's been contacted by the FBI. Here's the exchange (transcript via Romenesko):

BARTIROMO: SAM, LET ME ASK YOU ABOUT THE ISSUES OF THE DAY AND OBVIOUSLY BIG NEWS OUT OF ILLINOIS, THE GOVERNOR CHARGED WITH TRYING TO SELL PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA'S SEAT AMAZINGLY, ACCORDING TO PROSECUTORS. REPORTS THAT THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CHIEF OF STAFF THERE IN THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE SOUGHT TO FORCE THE FIRING OF MEMBERS OF "THE "CHICAGO TRIBUNE," TRUE?

ZELL: I'M NOT PERSONALLY FAMILIAR WITH ANY OF THAT. AND CONSIDERING THE FACT, MARIA, THAT THIS IS AN ONGOING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION, I WOULD FEEL RETICENT TO COMMENT ACCORDINGLY.

BARTIROMO: HAVE YOU BEEN CONTACTED BY THE FBI, SAM?

ZELL: YES.

BARTIROMO: AND THEY'RE LOOKING TO SEE IF THERE WAS ANY PRESSURE CLEARLY ON THE "TRIBUNE" STEAFF?

ZELL: I THINK THEY'RE ASKING QUESTIONS, AS FAR AS MY KNOWLEDGE IS CONCERNED. THE "TRIBUNE" DID NOT RESPOND AT ALL.

BARTIROMO: AND AS FAR AS YOU'RE CONCERNED, WAS THERE PRESSURE ON THE STAFFERS TO CHANGE COVERAGE?

ZELL: I CERTAINLY CAN'T SPEAK TO THAT.

Big cuts at NPR West*

Kevin Roderick reports on LA Observed that 64 NPR employees lost their jobs today as part of a massive cutback in the news department. Kim Masters, a Hollywood reporter and frequent guest on "Which Way, LA?," is among those being laid off. Additionally, "Day to Day" and "News and Notes" will be taken off the air on March 20.

*UPDATE: Roderick posts the memo from NPR CEO Dennis Haarsager:

Today, we are announcing the cancellation of News & Notes and Day to Day, and significant budget reductions across the organization. These cuts include the elimination of 64 filled and 21 unfilled positions, many of which are associated with the two cancelled programs. Positions have also been eliminated across NPR, including reporting, editorial, and production staffs; station services; digital media; research; communications; and administrative support. Overall, this is a 7% reduction in NPR’s current workforce.

NPR's David Folkenflik also has a story on the cuts - included is a breakdown of who is being fired from where:

["Day to Day" and "News and Notes"] will go off the air on March 20, and the 34 journalists working for them will lose their jobs, including hosts Madeleine Brand and Farai Chideya. The shows are both based in Culver City, Calif., at NPR West, a major satellite operation.

...Beyond the two shows, another 12 journalists will lose their jobs throughout NPR News.

Companywide, NPR is laying off 64 people and eliminating 21 other positions that are currently vacant. NPR News will still have more than 800 employees on staff, including about 300 journalists.

(Note: This item was posted earlier today and then reposted with updates)

No quarter for Zell

Kathleen Parker and Steve Pearlstein both have columns in today's Washington Post ripping Sam Zell. Links are here and here.

Tribune bankruptcy moves ahead

A Delaware District Court judge has agreed to allow Tribune Co. to operate normally during the bankruptcy proceedings, meaning the company can continue to pay employees and vendors. CFO Chandler Bigelow (wasn't he on "Friends"?) sent the following memo to Trib employees:

Just a short time ago, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved our "first day" motions regarding employee pay and benefits, and a number of other matters. The rulings enable Tribune to continue payroll and employee health benefits, and other processes and programs that are essential to continuing businesses without disruption.

In addition, under the authority of the Bankruptcy Code, the company continues to operate its businesses in the normal course, paying its vendors for post-filing goods and services, and serving its readers, viewers, listeners and advertisers. As a reminder, you can find additional information about the restructuring process on TribLink, on our website, www.tribune.com, and on our dedicated restructuring web site at http://chapter11.epiqsystems.com/tribune. You can also call our restructuring hotline at (888) 287-7568.

We’ll continue updating this information throughout the restructuring process. Attached is the press release we will issue in a few moments.

Sincerely
Chandler Bigelow

iWitness

Patt Morrison of the LA Times says enough with CNN's "iReporter" tag - they're eyewitnesses.

Blagojevich and the Tribune

The New York Times looks into the allegation that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's tried to coerce Tribune Co. executives into firing Chicago Tribune editorial writers in exchange for help in financing the sale of Wrigley Field and finds no evidence that Tribune execs played ball.

From the NYT:

There have been staff cuts in several part of Tribune Company, but the paper says there have been none at The Tribune’s editorial page. The one editorial writer the governor complained about by name, John P. McCormick, remains the deputy editorial page editor.

Tribune Company released a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying, “No one working for the company or on its behalf has ever attempted to influence staffing decisions at The Chicago Tribune or any aspect of the newspaper’s editorial coverage as a result of conversations with officials in the governor’s administration.”

In a separate statement, the paper’s editor, Gerould W. Kern, said, “There was never an instance where I was contacted or called, where any influence at all was placed against me.”

Brewer to go

The LA school board voted to buy out Superintendent David Brewer's contract. Brewer said yesterday he'll take the money and go.

Belo the belt

After taking a voluntary pay cut and overseeing 500 layoffs and buyouts, the chairman of A.H. Belo, which owns the Riverside Press-Enterprise, will receive a salary increase. The Dallas Morning News reports:

Robert W. Decherd, A.H. Belo's chairman, president and chief executive, will receive a salary of $600,000 in 2009, compared with $250,000 this year, the company said.

Insufficient signatures update

The Los Angeles Times asked a "shell-shocked" Ben Austin how it came to pass that he failed to collect the 500 signatures he needed to run for a seat on the Los Angeles Unified school board. He told the Times "that one of his campaign consultants gathered 500 signatures in the wrong school-board district." The LAT says Austin will appeal of the decision to keep him off the ballot.

The short end

A year ago, a highly complex deal was brokered that gave Sam Zell owernship of the Tribune Co., made several people lots of money and handed Tribune employees a rotten bag of risk.

A year later, Zell filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meantime, he still controls the company, the people who made lots of money get to keep it, and the employees are left holding the bag.

At least that's my reading of Andrew Ross Sorkin's analysis of the deal in the wake of the Tribune's bankruptcy.

Who made out?

Despite early resistance, Dennis J. FitzSimons, then the company’s chief executive, backed the plan. He was paid about $17.7 million in severance and other payments. The sale also bought all the shares he owned — $23.8 million worth. The day he left, he said in a note to employees that “completing this ‘going private’ transaction is a great outcome for our shareholders, employees and customers.”

Anyone else?

Tribune’s board was advised by a group of bankers from Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, which walked off with $35.8 million and $37 million, respectively. But those banks played both sides of the deal: they also lent Mr. Zell the money to buy the company. For that, they shared an additional $47 million pot of fees with several other banks, according to Thomson Reuters. And then there was Morgan Stanley, which wrote a “fairness opinion” blessing the deal, for which it was paid a $7.5 million fee (plus an additional $2.5 million advisory fee).

The pride of Wall Street.

How will Zell fare?

He invested $315 million in the form of subordinated debt in exchange for a warrant to buy 40 percent of Tribune in the future for $500 million. It is unclear how much he’ll lose, but one thing is clear: when creditors get in line, he gets to stand ahead of the employees.

Where do the employees stand?

Dan Neil, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Los Angeles Times, led a lawsuit with other Tribune employees against Mr. Zell and Tribune this fall. The suit contended “through both the structure of his takeover and his subsequent conduct, Zell and his accessories have diminished the value of the employee-owned company to benefit himself and his fellow board members.”

If the employees win, they will become Tribune creditors — and stand in line with all other creditors in bankruptcy court.

Bad news Blagojevich*, **

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested this morning on corruption charges for allegedly trying sell President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat.

In a bizarre twist, the case touches on Tribune Co., which just filed for bankruptcy protection. Apparently Blagojevich put the screws to Tribune's editorial board. From the NYT:

The authorities also say Mr. Blagojevich threatened to withhold state assistance from the Tribune Company, the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday. According to the authorities, Mr. Blagojevich wanted members of the Tribune’s editorial board, who had criticized him, to be fired before he extended any state assistance.

Bad decision-making on a statewide scale.

*UPDATE: U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, of Plame-gate fame, laid out the case in a morning press conference. Looks like the shakedown of Tribune Co. had to do with Wrigley Field, which the company desperately wanted to sell to pay down debt. From the Tribune's Chicago Breaking News:

Blagojevich ... also allegedly conspired to demand the firing of Chicago Tribune editorial board members responsible for editorials critical of Blagojevich in exchange for state help with the sale of Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs baseball stadium owned by Tribune Co.

Now, newspapers may be on hard times, but it seems the height of arrogance/stupidity to try to extort a company that employs a stable full of reporters.

The story goes on to say the Chicago Tribune agreed to delay publishing some stories at Fitzgerald's request:

"On occasion, prosecutors asked us to delay publication of stories, asserting that disclosure would jeopardize the criminal investigation." [Tribune Editor Gerould W.] Kern said. "In isolated instances, we granted the requests, but other requests were refused."

**UPDATE II: Looks like I spoke too soon about Blagojevich's arrogance in thinking he could muscle a newspaper without retribution. Gawker (via TJ Sullivan on Native Intelligence) flags this interesting tidbit from the affadavit:

In a November 11 intercepted call, [Blagojevich chief of staff John] Harris allegedly told Blagojevich that Tribune Financial Advisor talked to Tribune Owner and Tribune Owner "got the message and is very sensitive to the issue." Harris told Blagojevich that according to Tribune Financial Advisor, there would be "certain corporate reorganizations and budget cuts coming and, reading between the lines, he's going after that section." Blagojevich allegedly responded. "Oh. That's fantastic." After further discussion, Blagojevich said, "Wow. Okay, keep our fingers crossed. You're the man. Good job, John."

In a further conversation on November 21, Harris told Blagojevich that he had singled out to Tribune Financial Advisor the Tribune's deputy editorial page editor, John McCormick, "as somebody who was the most biased and unfair." After hearing that Tribune Financial Advisor had assured Harris that the Tribune would be making changes affecting the editorial board, Blagojevich allegedly had a series of conversations with Chicago Cubs representatives regarding efforts to provide state financing for Wrigley Field.

I assume "Tribune Owner" = Sam Zell. But before we condemn anyone, we have to consider the possibility that the Tribune folks were either cooperating with investigators or their receptiveness to Blagojevich's entreaties overstated by Harris. It doesn't look good though.

Curious case of insufficient signatures

According to the City Clerk's website, Ben Austin, former deputy to ex-Mayor Richard Riordan and consultant for Green Dot charter schools, failed to turn in the necessary signatures to qualify as a candidate in the March 3 race to replace outgoing LAUSD school board member Marlene Canter. This is curious because Austin was rumored to be Mayor Villaraigosa's pick in District 4. With Austin out, the field narrows to three.

Final words

Gerry Gittelson's final post at the Daily News.

NPR West to go dark?

Kevin Roderick of LA Observed first reported on Friday about speculation that NPR would pull the plug on "Day to Day" and "News and Notes" sometime this week. Here's part of the post:

I'm told that the mood at today's holiday lunch at the NPR West studios in Culver City turned dark as a rumor swept the place that "Day to Day" and "News and Notes" would be shut down. No official word from National Public Radio, but a source in Culver City says VP for News Ellen Weiss is coming out next week to swing the hatchet...

From what little I hear the speculation appears to be true, which just adds to an avalanche of bad news out this week for the L.A. media market (scroll down for more).

Brewer, bankruptcy and Bill Lockyer

On "Which Way, LA?" tonight at 7:30 p.m.: Howard Blume of the LA Times, former LAUSD board member Genethia Hudley Hayes and Jamie Regalado of the Pat Brown Institute discuss LA school's chief David Brewer's plan to step down; Alan Mutter (Reflections of a Newsosaur) on Tribune Co.'s decision to file for bankruptcy protection; and state Treasurer Bill Lockyer says he'll put a stop-payment on state projects until the Legislature crafts a budget deal.

David Brewer wants a buy out

In a carefully played game of semantics, LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer offers to resign without saying he'll resign. Instead, he asks the school board to do what they wanted to do originally, which was to buy out his contract. Here's the pertinent passage:

The current debate about my leadership and the performance of the district has been contentious. It has been demoralizing and debilitating, not only to our valued employees, but has spilled over into the community. As an African-American, I’ve experienced my share of discrimination. When I joined the Navy as an officer over 37 years ago, there were only 250 African-American officers out of 72,000. I know what it looks like, smells like, and the consequences. Although this debate is disconcerting and troubling, it must not become an ethnic issue. When adults fight, it can manifest itself in our children. This must not become an ethnic or racial battle that infests our schools, our campuses, our playgrounds. This is not about settling an old score; this must be about what is best for every LAUSD student.

Therefore, I have decided to do what I think is in the best interest of the children, to put all of our students first. Although my two years of service as superintendent contain an undeniable record of significant accomplishments, I am asking the Los Angeles School Board to shield our students from this contentious debate and honor the buy-out provisions of my contract.

Read the rest of his comments here.

Tribune files for bankruptcy*

The Tribune Co. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Here's the memo from Sam Zell:

Partners,

We just announced that Tribune is restructuring its debt under Chapter 11 protection. I’m sure you saw the speculative coverage last night and this morning. I would have preferred everyone get the news from me first, but since our debt is publicly traded, we had to keep this decision confidential until we had a formal board decision. The Cubs franchise is not part of the filing.

Most importantly, I want to stress that we will continue to operate our business as usual. That includes meeting payroll and covering benefits (such as healthcare, disability and others), and paying vendors for all goods and services they provide to us going forward.

As is routine with Chapter 11 filings, we have filed “First-Day Motions” to get court approval on these and many other programs that are essential to continuing our businesses without disruption. We expect to get approval on these motions within the next few days.

You are also most likely wondering about the other aspects of your compensation. The 401(k) is unaffected by the filing, and in general, the existing benefits in the pension and cash balance plans are also unaffected by the filing. The ESOP is part of the ownership structure, so its value and role long-term will be determined in the restructuring. We believe the structure is a valuable asset to the company and that there are strong reasons to preserve it.

So, how did we get here? It has been, to say the least, the perfect storm. A precipitous decline in revenue and a tough economy have coupled with a credit crisis, making it extremely difficult to support our debt. All of our major advertising categories have been dramatically impacted.

By restructuring our debt, we will reduce the pressure on the company’s operating businesses, enabling us to pursue our vision of creating a sustainable, cutting-edge media company that is valued by our readers, viewers, and advertisers, and that plays a vital role in the communities we serve.

This filing should not impact the way you do your jobs on a day-to-day basis. We will continue to operate responsibly in a challenging environment – aggressively managing costs and maximizing revenue opportunities. These are all things we would do whether or not we were restructuring our debt.

Our challenges are consistent with those facing all media companies, and an increasing number of companies across a variety of industries today. The reality is that we – along with the rest of the country – have very little visibility on where the economy is headed and how our businesses will perform given the recession.

The good news is that we have great brands, and we produce great products every day. It’s up to all of us to continue to focus on what it is we do best.

As your Chairman and CEO, I will continue to be actively engaged in the business and I remain committed to the company, to you and to our lenders. Randy, Gerry and the rest of the management team are equally dedicated to moving this company forward.

I’m sure you have a lot of questions that this email doesn’t cover. I encourage you to visit TribLink where we’ve posted some anticipated Q&A, or call the toll-free number we’ve established – 888-287-7568. We’ll also have information posted on Tribune.com. But, recognize that there is quite a bit we don’t know – or that we cannot confirm – at this point.

I am proud of the work we have done at Tribune in the last year. I’ve seen strong determination to take hold of this company and put it on a new course. As a result, we’ve reduced costs, gained market share, and laid the groundwork for creating a new business model out of traditional media. This restructuring will give us the time we need to build that model, to secure sustainable and growing cash flow, and to achieve the success the talented partners in this company deserve.

Sam

*Los Angeles Times, New York Times

Brewer to step down (Updated from earlier today)

According to several reports, David Brewer plans to announce today that he will resign as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Daily Breeze, Daily News

*The latest story in the Los Angeles Times indicates Brewer is looking for a third way, in which he agrees to leave but doesn't resign "outright." Is this mere semantics?

NYT bets the house

The credit crisis has slammed the newspaper business. Rumblings of bankruptcy at Tribune Co. and now the New York Times plans to borrow against its new building to ease a cash flow problem:

The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.

Will he stay or will he go?

Embattled Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent David Brewer is slated to make a public statement today at 2 p.m.

From the Daily Breeze blog: "It could go either way at this point," said one district rep.

Bankruptcy fears for Tribune Co.*,**

Is Tribune Co. trying to stave off bankruptcy proceedings or seeking bankruptcy protection? The New York Times follows an earlier post that implied the former with a fuller story that indicates the latter might actually be the case:

The Tribune Company, the newspaper chain that owns The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, is trying to negotiate new terms with its creditors and has hired advisers for a possible bankruptcy filing, according to people briefed on the matter.

Tribune is in danger of falling below the cash flow required under its bonds, but it is not clear how seriously Tribune is thinking about seeking bankruptcy protection. Analysts and bankruptcy experts say that the hiring of advisers, including Lazard and Sidley Austin, one of the company’s longtime law firms, could be a just-in-case move, or a bargaining tactic. The company would not comment on Sunday.

*UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal reports that a bankruptcy filing could be imminent:

Tribune Co. is preparing for a possible filing for bankruptcy-court protection as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of worsening trouble for the newspaper industry.

**UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times follows with a own story of its own:

The company ... is preparing for a possible bankruptcy filing as it attempts to renegotiate $12 billion in debt obligations with banks and other creditors, a Tribune Co. official said Sunday.

The Chicago media conglomerate hired Lazard Ltd. a little more than a week ago for advice on a possible Chapter 11 filing, though people familiar with internal talks said the company was exploring several options.

-snip-

"Revenue declines have been dramatically worse, even over the last couple of weeks. It's just really rough," said the Tribune executive, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the company. "A number of advertisers just don't have the money to spend right now.

"Some advertisers are still pushing to get through the holiday season, but when others look to cut discretionary spending, we are right at the top of the list," the executive said.

All for one

Martin Peers of the Wall Street Journal thinks mass consolidation is needed for newspaper companies to keep bankruptcy at bay:

...The cash deals of recent years saddled many newspaper chains with too much debt, exacerbating today's problems. But the industry is still too fragmented. The biggest publisher, Gannett, accounts for 13.6% of daily circulation. Tribune accounts for 5.3%. Combinations would allow companies to save on corporate overhead and information-technology costs, which account for as much as 6% to 7% of revenues. The latter are particularly important as newspapers ramp up spending to expand their Web sites.

One logical combination is a merger of MediaNews, Freedom and Lee. These companies have geographic overlap in some of their properties, which would allow efficiencies in printing and distribution. MediaNews and Freedom overlap in Southern California -- MediaNews owns the L.A. Daily News while Freedom has the Orange County Register -- and in Colorado.

I'm not sure about Lee, but a Freedom-MediaNews marriage isn't too far fetched. And so what does Peers think should happen with Tribune Co.?

Meanwhile, Tribune could be broken up and its properties combined on a more geographically logical basis. Its Los Angeles Times would fit well with a MediaNews-Freedom-Lee combination, allowing it to dominate Southern California. Its Florida papers might make more sense with McClatchy, which owns the Miami Herald. Regulators might be more accepting of such deals in the current climate.

MediaNews buys the LA Times? You've blown my mind - and the mind of every current and former Singleton reporter who ever harbored a giddy hope that one day the mighty Times would take notice and call you up to the show.

Paying for mistakes

Steve Lopez on L.A.'s public school system, Superintendent David Brewer's generous expense account and the school board that pays for it all (with taxpayer money).

Who's that knocking on Sam Zell's door?

Sam Zell's Tribune Co. has hired a team of advisers to help keep it from falling into bankruptcy, the New York Times reports. Tribune owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, among other newspapers.

From the NYT:

Tribune has hired bankruptcy advisers as the ailing newspaper company seeks to stave off a potential bankruptcy filing, people briefed on the matter said.

The newspaper, which was taken private last year by billionaire investor Samuel Zell, has hired the investment bank Lazard and the law firm Sidley Austin, these people said. Tribune has been hobbled by debt related to that sale last year, which has been compounded by the growing drought of advertising for newspapers.

It is only the latest — and biggest — sign of duress for the newspaper industry yet. Several newspaper companies have struggled to cope with declining revenues and mounting debt woes.

Shorties

Parallel deconstruction

Fuck you, judge

The wretched sport

The deadliest beat

White House University

The Washington Post looks at who Barack Obama has chosen for top staff and adviser slots and finds him leaning heavily on Ivy Leaguers and other striving academics. The Regular American conservatives worry the egg heads will break when the going gets tough and others fear policy-making will begin to feel like analytical research:

The libertarian University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein, who is not related to Joseph Epstein, worries that the team's exceptionalism could lead to overly complex policies. "They are really smart people, but they will never take an obvious solution if they can think of an ingenious one. They're all too clever by half," he said. "These degrees confer knowledge but not judgment. Their heads are on grander themes . . . and they'll trip on obstacles on the ground."

Our last president held degrees from Yale and Harvard and yet he spurned his brain for a torrid affair with his gut. Eight years later, a return to the head sounds like a good idea to me.

Still, an overreliance on academics has its own dangers. The two cures are transparency and judgment. While think Obama's success will depend on his commitment to the former, an old Obama colleague thinks the president-elect will bring the former to the White House:

Douglas Baird, who hired Obama at the University of Chicago, noted that whizzes can also have too much faith in their answers. But he said Obama is confident enough in his own intellect to challenge others' conclusions. He recalled watching Obama hold his own with erudite faculty members.

"He goes into a faculty club filled with Nobel laureates, and he talks to them on equal terms -- there hasn't been anyone in the White House like that for a long time," Baird said. "So it's not as if, when he's given advice by powerful, smart people, that he'll get swayed from his core principles. And if you're confident you're going to stick to your own principles, then you might as well surround yourself with smart people rather than dumb ones."

Quotas, no ties

The new rules for reporters at the Los Angeles Daily Journal are somewhat less regressive than feared. Male reporters won't be required to wear neckties after all and there is no story quota. However, DJ reporters will have to write at least three blog posts a week and do "outreach" (meeting up with important lawyers on their beat) at least four times a month. They were also told to get to work no later than 9 a.m. Oh, and the paper has placed an ad on Media Bistro for a new editor.

*Question: Does Alan Mittelstaedt stay on?

More problems for water board member

Xavier Alvarez, troubled Three Valleys Municipal Water District board member, faces three felony counts for allegedly funneling health insurance funds to his ex-wife. The L.A. District Attorney's Public Integrity Division is prosecuting.

Alvarez, you may remember, has a history of bad decision-making.

Cuts at Daily News (Updated from earlier today)

Ambiguous assurances aside, the Daily News is making more newsroom cuts. I'm told a sportswriter was let go yesterday and that one or two more staffers could get pink slipped today. There are also rumors of reassignments and further shrinking of the print product.

In a related vein, I've also heard rumblings that LANG is in discussions to have some of its papers printed at the Los Angeles Times' printing plant.

*UPDATED: Three Daily News reporters lost their jobs: prep sportswriter Gerry Gittelson, 11-year film critic Glenn Whipp and reporter Justino Aguila. That comes in addition to the departure of Antelope Valley reporter Karen Maeshiro, who quit after the AV section closed. She was told she could stay on at the paper, but only if she commuted to Woodland Hills.

I'm also told the DN Travel section will fold and that travel writer Eric Noland will be reassigned to the metro desk. LANG sports editor Kevin Modesti has also been reassigned as a metro reporter.

I am the future and so can you!

An interesting offer on the daily USC jobs email:

Announcing the "I Am The Future Of Journalism" Contest
by Scott Karp • December 2nd, 2008 •

Publish2 is launching a contest for journalists to promote themselves
as the future of journalism. We believe journalism has a bright
future, and we're betting everything on that belief.

The winner of the "I Am The Future Of Journalism" Contest receives a
prize that we know is increasingly valuable in journalism due to
shrinking supply — a job.

It's a job with Publish2, a start-up focused on helping journalism
thrive in the digital age. We already employ two incredibly talented
journalists, Tammi Marcoullier and Josh Korr, and we want to expand
our team. Included in the offer is a $1,000 signing bonus.

The contest is open to submissions until December 30.

According to the company's website, Karp was previously director of digital strategy at the Atlantic magazine. Marcoullier comes from WashingtonPost.com and Korr from the St. Petersburg Times. On the business side, the chief technical officer, Steven Sweet, hails from Copley Press, where he "led new media development" for Copley's now-defunct L.A. division; and Chairman Robert Young is said to have invented pay-per-click advertising.

And here's a story about the company, with a somewhat vague description of its goal to let freelancers and newsroom journalists share story ideas and link to each others work.

Quotas and corrections and ties? Oh my!

The Los Angeles Daily Journal held a mandatory staff meeting this morning to discuss changes under new managing editor David Houston. Not sure yet what was decided, but I'm told the agenda would include such things as story quotas, stricter deadlines for mandatory judicial profiles, a new policy for story corrections and neckties for male reporters.

Mi guerra es su guerra*

Unlike here, Mexico's 'war on drugs' looks like a war. Since the start of 2007, the country has recorded 6,836 drug-related deaths. The staggering numbers are only eclipsed by the savagery of the killers. While the violence has so far stopped at the border, the war's roots run deep inside the U.S.

Fortunately the Los Angeles Times has decided to devote serious resources to covering Mexico's drug war, despite cuts in other areas of international reporting. The stories from reporters Richard Marosi, Tracy Wilkinson, Ken Ellingwood, Sam Quinones and others are collected here.

*UPDATED: The latest story comes Sam Quinones, who looks at a 2007 massacre at a Monterrey, Mexico jewelry store. The killers left four people dead and didn't take a thing. Video included.