Jan 3, 2009

Do you know the way to San Gabe?

LA Observed obtained an e-mail from the Southern California Media Guild that would indicate the cake is not yet baked for LANG's universal copy desk. According to guild rep Vicki Di Paolo, Senior Vice President Jim Janiga confirmed reports that LANG's Inland Division will merge news/copy desks this month, but said the Daily News, Daily Breeze and Press-Telegram will be added only if the inland merger "proves successful."

Here's the e-mail:
Hi everyone, In a meeting late this afternoon I was told by SVP Jim Janiga that the San Bernardino Sun, the Redlands Daily Facts, the Inland Daily Bulletin, the Pasadena Star-News and the Whittier Daily News copy desks will be moved/centralized in San Gabriel. The company plans to reduce the number of employees both in managment and the staff who perform the work. Janiga did not have exact numbers but did say the employer may have a problem if current staffers were not willing to commute to San Gabriel. He also stated that if this proves successful the company plans to also move the Daily Breeze and the Daily News there in a few months - most likely April. I understand the information above conflicts with what Daily News members were told by Carolina* this afternoon. I am sending Janiga an email questioning which statements are most accurate. In unity, Vicki
Since the Inland Division's earlier copy desk merger proved unsuccessful, it's unclear what new criteria will be used to evaluate this latest effort. Maybe if enough money is saved in stage one, or if advertising picks up precipitously in early 2009, or if too few copy editors agree to relocate, there will be no further consolidation in April. However, from what I hear, top editors at the Daily Breeze and Daily News seemed convinced the universal copy desk is inevitable after meeting this week with LANG management in West Covina.

Note: For the sake of clarity, the universal copy desk would be located at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, which is headquartered in the city of West Covina. There is also a city called San Gabriel in the San Gabriel Valley.

*Carolina Garcia, editor of the LA Daily News.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well if Jim Janiga says it's not a done deal yet, then we should trust him. It's not like Jim Janiga is a pathological liar that hasn't told the truth in years or anything like that. I'm sure if we put our heads together, someone can remember a bunch of times when he was honest with us.

Anonymous said...

Sorry. We all tried and we can't think of one, except, no more layoffs.

The copy desk will "work" because the game is rigged.

What won't be working after next week is a lot of folks who should and a number of leaders who should be embarassed to collect a check.

How's the revenue stream coming boys? All of those great ideas kicking in yet?

Anonymous said...

Carolina is the editor of the Daily News. The managing editor left months ago and was not replaced.

Gary Scott said...

I've fixed Garcia's title, thanks.

Anonymous said...

None of this will work and thats exactly what LANG wants is a complete failure.