Aug 5, 2009

New Daily Breeze publisher*,**

The Los Angeles Newspaper Group today named Linda Lindus as publisher of the Torrance Daily Breeze and Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Lindus succeeds interim publisher and executive editor Phillip Sanfield, who announced last month that he's taking over as director of media relations at the Port of Los Angeles.

Lindus previously served as publisher of the Lee Enterprises-owned Daily News in Longview, Washington. Immediately prior to that job, Lindus was publisher of the Pantagraph, also owned by Lee, in Bloomington, Illinois.

From a 2007 Daily News article:
In addition to Bloomington, Lindus has had responsibility for Lee daily newspapers in Decatur, DeKalb, Mattoon, Charleston and Carbondale, Ill.; Park Hills, Mo.; Maysville, Ky.; Carlisle, Pa.; Auburn and Glens Falls, N.Y.; and Orangeburg, S.C.

Lindus was born in Aberdeen. She got her start in the news business when a friend, who ran an Arizona weekly newspaper, asked her for help with his books. A reporter was out sick that day, Lindus recalled, so she stepped in and covered a city council meeting.

She continued writing and editing and took her first publishing position around 1980, she said.
*Updated to reflect Lindus will also be publisher of the Press-Telegram

**Update II: The Daily Breeze has put a story up.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will she also be publisher of the Press-Telegram? The PT and Breeze publishing jobs had been combined.

Gary Scott said...

Yes.

I'll add that to the post.

Anonymous said...

actually, prolly publisher of all. what folks don't know is that they are all cookie cutters and controlled out of san gabe now.

Anonymous said...

yes, san gabe, the flagship of lang.

wonder how long she will enjoy working for retired fred?

Anonymous said...

Yet another example of LANG needing to beat the newspaper business' minor-league bushes to find someone willing to come work as a publisher for them. Lindus has never worked at a newspaper with more than about 30,000 circulation, and her background with the parochial Lee Enterprises means she (possibly) knows a lot about small-town newspapering, nothing more. The Breeze and the P-T aren't exactly the New York Times, but they have a lot more cred and serve a much more savvy and exacting audience than the fine people of Longview, WA, a former logging town that would be maybe the fifth-largest city in the Breeze's circulation area. This feels an awful lot like the move that brought Carolina Garcia to the Daily News from a Bay Area paper less than half the DN's size. Why can't LANG find market-and operation-appropriate talent?

Anonymous said...

Why can't LANG find market-and operation-appropriate talent?



...because those folks don't want to commit professional suicide?

Seriously though, are you sure they haven't found what they need? Don't look at the size of the falling circ, look at the size of the paper and operations. Lindus knows how to run a small newspaper, LANG wants someone to turn the Breeze into a small paper. Viola!

Anonymous said...

You people are way off about her. God help all the employees in Torrance and Long Beach.

Anonymous said...

Long Beach has been a LANG paper for over ten years, they've already been gutted. The Breeze is still fresh meat for the bean counters.

Compare staffing levels, then ask yourself where the axe is going to fall. I'm sure they'll take a few whacks at the Press-Telegram, but it's going to be a very bloody year for Torrance.

Anonymous said...

As long as dimwit Fred is running the show it will be bloody for all except those who kiss a lot of butt.

I am sure the new publisher will lead lang in many new ventures like magazines, tv hispanic books, you know Fred, all those great money losing ideas you invented.

You have all heard the old joke that lang practices all too well. How do you end up with a small fortune? Start with a big one.

The poster at 5:02 is very accurate. Dying newspapers, dwindling circulation and readership, etc.

She may do a fine job, but if dimwit hired her, don't bet on it.

Lang is a crap organization on many fronts. They have more turnover in their publisher ranks than anyone I have ever seen. Within the last couple of years most of their newspapers have had 2-3 different publishers...some very good ones quit on their own because of lang's ineptness.

Anonymous said...

This new publisher will be like none you've seen before. That's not meant in a good way.

Anonymous said...

it's comical that san gabe is the flagship of lang and the paper looks like something from a high school. the daily bruin is a nicer looking thing.

Anonymous said...

they have gutted and decimated all of it. buckle up folks. it's going to be a bumpy ride. again, making san gabe the hub for production...sending LB and Breeze and DN people over there was the beginning of cruddy decisions. like taking a high school team to the big leagues.

Anonymous said...

There's no call for digs at the sister papers. Does anyone in LANG have the staff, technology, or support to do their best work? We're all just trying to keep our heads down and get by. Taking potshots at people who are in the same sinking boat as the rest of us is just stupid.

A while back I got yelled at for defending the Daily News. It'll be funny if I get slammed for sticking up for the Trib this time.

Anonymous said...

i cant speak for other posters, but, my comments are not directed to rank and file at lang. i agree, under circumstances most people do very good work. it is their inept leadership that should be ashamed.

and to an earlier poster, that is an insult to the daily bruin.

by the way, having advertising reporting up to lambert is so wrong on so many fronts. nice call retired fred.

Anonymous said...

From rumor central at LANG. Has Lambert made a real blunder with one of his managers? More to follow. Retired Fred, he is your pick so it falls on you too.

Former PTer said...

I want to support the PT and the DB but when they do moves like hire a person that only has small-town paper experience, that only shows that LANG is committed to keeping the two papers small or make them smaller.
I would have thought LANG was going to step up and get a big name to show they mean business in the newspaper industry.
I guess they don't want to move forward.

Anonymous said...

"I would have thought LANG was going to step up and get a big name to show they mean business in the newspaper industry."

Really?

Anonymous said...

As folks in Longview know, Linda Lindus is a hatchet with a dull but brutal blade. She is the sort of manager who apparently doesn't mind being detested by her staff and ultimately by the community.

Wittingly or unwittingly, LANG seems to have offered itself as a Lee dumping ground (How does this happen? Does anyone care about employment history any more?)

In May and June, Longview readers protested Lindus' sudden, unpublicized firing a long-time, much respected and honored editor/columnist/feature writer.

As word leaked out about what had happened and why the column had vanished without a trace, Lindus refused to print protesting letters to the editor. The resulting subscription cancellations and outraged appeals to Lee corporate headquarters spoke the painful truth to power.

Lee got the message. Will LANG?

Anonymous said...

Buncha unemployed whiners. Managerment has got to cut now to position the newspapers for recovery when the economy comes back. The combination of HRH President Obama's shrewd economics and Medianewses hard-nosed prep work will result in better days for newspapers tuff enuff to EARN their better days.

Anonymous said...

last poster...good comedy or you need a drug test.

Anonymous said...

If she doesn't mind being detested by her staff, she will be a perfect fit at Lang.