The CEO of LANG's Inland Division sent out a memo today announcing that Steve Lambert, 52, will take over as editor and general manager of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. SGVN, as its known, is comprised of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News. The group is also the home base of the newly consolidated copy desk.
Lambert also serves as vice president of news for all of LANG.
The memo also says Frank Pine, 37, will move out of SGVN, where he currently serves as senior editor, to become executive editor of the other two Inland Division papers: the San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
The full memo from Fred Hamilton is here.
*SGVN has posted a story on the changes.
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48 comments:
When I first read this part:
"The CEO of LANG's Inland Division sent out a memo today announcing that Steve Lambert will..." I got happy for some reason.
Yes...but then you read the rest of the posting...depressing, really depressing.
Did I miss something? What happened to Fred Board, who was hired about a year ago to replace Larry Kline, who was hired about a year before that? He's just "no longer with our company"? Maybe every February, someone at LANG comes out of their cave, sees their shadow, and replaces the SGVN publisher/editor/general manager/whatever they decide to call the next one.
fred board wasn't hired a year ago, he was with the company and filled in on a very poor basis and helped drive down profits. at best a no talent pencil pusher who never liked the drive. what new things has lambert heded up that have worked from a revenue perspective? the answer is none since lang as a whole has none. a continued blight on the industry. fred hamilton and ed moss, you both should be ashamed.
maybe fred board is on one of those furloughs...a new word for adios sucker.
Hey anon. at 5:31 Would you care to detail your evaluation of Fred Board? He was the publisher/gen mgr position at Redlands Daily Facts and then at Inland Valley Daily Bulletin until he went to San Gabriel. It's difficult to justify your statement "a no talent pencil pusher who never liked the drive." What real knowledge do you have to back up a statement like that? Inquiring minds want to know.
HAHAHAHAHAAHA,
The inner-circle CANIBALISM HAS BEGUN! YEAH! First the BOARD walked the plank and I bet some PINE will get cut soon too.
What about managing editors Long Beach's Rich Archbold and Breeze's Phil Sanfield ?
Who will walk the plank?
"Steve has done an outstanding job as editor and has been instrumental in the strategic planning for new product launches and content and revenue initiatives that have been rolled out across the division."
WTF? revenue initiatives? new product launches & content? outstanding job as editor?
FMVH (fuk me very hard) Where the Fuk have I been that I missed all this great shit
I'm sure we can make intelligent arguments without resorting to profanity...
hey poster at 7:11...inquiring minds want to know...check the facts from the people who have worked with him the past 12 months. he has made no bones about the fact that he didn't want to be in san gabe, he was rarely in the office, not one original idea was launched under his regime, and he was spineless. and, just to avoid any confusion, this is not an attack on fred from any perspective except how he did his job. and yes, you can disagree, but others are entitled to their thoughts and opinions...you are free to discount those as much as you would like. as far as the pencil pusher statement, he actually was trying to reduce expenses by saving office supplies that amounted to pennies as 100 dollar bills floated over his head.
Can someone explain why Lambert is VP of News AND an editor? Shouldn't that be two separate jobs?
And maybe the VP job should be held by somebody on the western end of LANG where -- if we're all honest about it -- the better "journalism" takes place. Not that LANG cares about quality, of course ...
Continuing my comment from 9:25, I see Lambert's also general manager of the Inland Division. So he holds three titles at what would seem to be three levels of the company.
Consolidation at its best!
Does this mean that Pine is autonomous? Or is he still on the end of Lambert's leash? It would be so nice to see Frank Pine, the effective communicator who could motivate his newsroom and find ways to make newsroom work well even in horrible conditions.
Not Senior Editor Frank Pine, meaningless and empty suit.
yikes mates. another brilliant strategic move by the lang braintrust, what's next? put a guy in charge of the business side who has training as an editor, though, many woud argue that point, to turn around a rapidly sinking ship from the advertising and circulation side of the house. i sure wish i could place a bet on how this will turn out. you only need to know two words to get to the outcom...badly, very badly!
This is starting to look like the campfire scene between Bogie and Tim Holt in Treasure of Sierra Madre, rising madness and paranoia, with the one who falls asleep at risk of not surviving the night. How many LANG managers or editors are left? Who will make the final cull? And then what?
it it all just shifting people around and then shifting them back. it won't stop the bleeding at these outfits. and consolidating the operation (copy desk/news desks to san gabe is going to create more problems than solutions. so sit back, grab some popcorn and watch the drama unfold.
it would be the best horror movie yet, but the killing of the innocent is real and most could have been prevented.
Wasn't steve osullivan a gm at some point? not over the same number of newspapers as renfield, but similar. maybe he will suffer the same fate.
The level of hysteria on this blog is ridiculous. You ex LANGers with nothing better to do should know better than to try to create havoc in what is a calm newsroom.
It's pathetic that 90 percent of what's posted here wouldn't qualify as news anywhere else. This blog and the mean-spirited comments it engenders only shows how small-minded so many of you really are.
And the lame union attempts at hijacking the comments only further cements reporter-g's lack of credentials as a legitimate source of credible information.
Good luck finding that next job in the news biz. Your bitterness will no doubt put you back on "the list" sooner rather later
seems to me you are a bit sensitive on this. guess folks can't have an opinion.
also seems to me that many "sources" seem to prove accurate...like layoffs, like moving the copy desk one more time, like closing down san gabriel printing facility, etc etc etc.
you may want to scan over that past year and see exactly how much hysteria has come to pass.
and since you appear to be a journalist of the highest regard, maybe other disciplines also leave a comment here.
frankly, in my years in the newspaper biz, most bitterness seemed to always start in the newsroom.
lighten up!
Lambert, Pine.
Pine, Lambert.
Deck chairs on the Titanic, mostly because Lambert is the only one Singleton trusts and Pine is the only one Lambert trusts.
If Singleton is Dracula and Lambert is Renfield, what is Pine?
"Calm" newsrooms? Uh huh. Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.
poster at 5:22. you must be on drugs. the newsroom wasn't calm over a year ago when revenues were much better and the whacking of employees hadn't started in full force.
calm newsroom...pretty funny!
hey anon at 5:22: go read somebody else's blog.
we LANGers appreciate that somebody gives a shit about us enough -- and recognizes the value (whether former or potential) of our papers -- to write about this stuff.
and, yeah, the "calm" thing is way off, buddy. or maybe you haven't spent too much time in any of these newsrooms.
Anon. at 5:52 is mistaking "calm newsrooms" for the ones he dubiously ran. Dude, the staff was asleep, not calm. You put them to SLEEP!
* Should have read: "Anon. at 5:22". I was looking for a copy editor when I wrote this, but they were either laid off or on furlough.
nah, they were to calm to notice the typo.
Pine is one of the ultimate survivors in LANG, along with Punky Brewster in sports and Mike Brossart at the Bulletin.
Pine has always done a wonderful job, first with O'Sullivan and then with Lambert, of making himself indispensible to the guy in power.
Either Pine or Lambert will be the last one out the door when LANG closes up shop, but Brewster will survive a nuclear holocaust.
Here is a great Lambert move. In my final weeks with the Facts Darth Vad...um Lambert came into the office and declared he wanted to keep all of my camera gear under lock and key in the Editors office which was locked when the "Genius" was not in. I asked about what to do if breaking news happens and the editor is not here or on the weekends? Lambert replied..."I always have a note pad with me just for that"?!?!?! What did he propose, I draw front page art?
This is the kind of guy that is in charge now.
must be why lamberts in charge of technology.
There is one easy way out of all of Singleton's financial problems.
Buy Steve Lambert for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.
you probably say the same about singleton right about now.
this needs to be a source of good info, not whining. does anyone know about more layoffs anywhere in LANG?
yes, more to come.
As mentioned earlier, look for further print consolodation, smaller papers in content, which will all lead to more layoffs. look for top ad managers to get canned as the head jerk seeks to find answers. look for him to replace said canned managers with his hires over the past year or so who couldn't get out of a room with no doors or walls. and finally, the hr guy said no more layoffs.
yes, more to come. features sections being dropped.
something like a dozen or more alone with the copy desk/news desk consolidation next month. how is it going so far? if it goes good, they are moving the breeze, press telegram and daily news to the desk next month.
Anybody seen Pine play softball? He throws like a girl.
news flash to the ad guy in charge at the daily news. it appears the drums are beating for your departure and roaming wind is set to take your place. of course roaming wind and her team have shown a stellar effort...NOT. the jokes keep coming.
This can't be a happy move for Steve Lambert. For one thing, the man lives in Highland and had a very easy commute to the Sun. Now he has to go all the way to West Covina?
What this looks like more than anything else is that it was done for two reasons:
1. Put Lambert in the same building with the consolidated copy desk.
2. Shuffle two editors who had worn out their welcome where they were.
The winner in this one seems to be Pine, who goes back to his old comfort zone -- AND gets a promotion in the way of title from senior managing editor to executive editor of two papers.
you might be right, but my guess is that lambert wont be in covina every day. he will have plenty of reasons to be east. also, seems some of the partners dean has were not happy with the oversight at the eastern papers, hence, pine being a senior sitter. the ad people should get brilliant direction from lambert, taking them to unforseen gains!
Too bad. Dean had two pretty good papers out east until he started cutting staffs and consolidating everything.
My guess is that Steve will just ignore the order to go to San Gabe and spend his time at the Sun anyway.
His family situation won't allow him to wander too far.
My guess is that Steve will just ignore the order to go to San Gabe and spend his time at the Sun anyway.
His family situation won't allow him to wander too far.
What family situation?
when the 3 western papers....LADN, PT and Torrance move their desks to san gabe, will san gabe people be laid off? hmmm. they don't need all these people.
Steve is (or maybe was) raising two children by himself. He needs to be close to them.
which means as mentioned in an earlier comment, he won't be spending days in san gabriel and pine has become a sitter for the office that one of deans partners...stevens...wants some management at the site so the place does not run amok.
less people in san gabe is possible as all lang moves to west covina, but, many cuts have been done over the past couple of years. bank on not all folks from southbay newspapers wanting to make that glorious drive twice each day and bank on cuts from those ranks.
it is truly to bad that someone in charge doesn't want to focus on revenue growth instead of expense cuts, while necessary, won't take them to the promised land.
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