Salt Lake Tribune trims op-ed pages

We're as angry as you are by what we've done.

Calling on citizens

The New York Times is set to launch a handful of "citizen journalism" sites on Monday, collectively to be called The Local. The reporting will be overseen by two Times staffers, who will in turn be overseen by a Times deputy metro editor.

In some ways, this is a return to newspapers' roots. Local reporters and editors traditionally relied on strong community ties to develop stories and shape coverage. The Internet offers near infinite space to allow these sources to record their own thoughts and observations, and help spark discussions that go into specifics that a general-interest paper shouldn't. It seems reasonable that a newspaper would build a centralized online forum, and the Times, despite recent financial turmoil, is one of the few papers with the resources to put something like this together.

But newspapers should be careful of two things. First, they should not allow "citizen journalism" to replace professional reporting. If someone, anyone, puts together a story that's worthy of running in the paper and meets strict editorial standards, that person should be paid for the work. Would it make sense to ask an excellent amateur chef to cook for free making dishes for sale in a restaurant? At some point, the "citizen" crosses over a boundary and the people making money off the work have a responsibility to drop the "volunteer" bullshit and pony up.

(Unfortunately, the trend of deprofessionalizing journalism is going to continue, and not because newspaper owners want to encourage open debate. It's a way for debt-ridden chains to drive down wages and benefits - maybe even eliminate them altogether for certain content.)

Second, papers need be mindful of the 'city council effect'. Anyone who's covered City Hall for a living knows the score. Very few people in a community have the time or inclination to get involved in multiple community issues. They usually show up when they feel passionate about something - a change in zoning near their home or child's school, traffic problems in their neighborhood, a plan to build a Wal-Mart at the end of the block. Once the issue is resolved, the council room empties, except for staff, a few activists and a gadfly or two - these are the stalwarts of public debate.

Ensuring an open, interesting and diverse citizen forum will be difficult. It will take time and money. Hopefully the Times invests both.

Daily News goes to Gardena

The Daily News and the Long Beach Press-Telegram will both outsource their printing operations to Gardena-based Southwest Offset Printing, the same company that prints the Torrance Daily Breeze. All of this appears to be part of a plan to sell the Daily News-owned printing plant in Valencia.

As noted in the preceeding post, the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group will outsource printing of its three papers to the Orange County Register.

OC Register to print San Gabriel Valley newspapers

The San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group - San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News - today announced plans to outsource the printing of its papers to the Orange County Register.

Rod Leveque reports at the group's Economic Alert blog:

The papers had been published at a facility in Valencia owned by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which includes the Tribune, Star-News and Whittier Daily News. The move is part of a larger effort by the group to restructure its printing and production operations.

According to CEO of LANG, Ed Moss, "Outsourcing our printing will enable us to reallocate vital resources to our editorial and advertising sales efforts and refocus on our core mission of being the premium local content provider in the communities we serve."

I'm told LANG plans to sell the Valencia plant, which also prints the Daily News, within the next few months. The announcement here would seem to add credence to this.

Four in the morning

California's unemployment rate hits 10.1 percent ... Layoffs at Latham & Watkins: Even lawyers aren't safe ... How good is Obama's cross-over left? ... Obituary for former state lawmaker Nell Soto

The electric newspaper

Fortune reports that Hearst Corp, owner of the imperiled San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is working to develop a Kindle-like electronic reader for newspapers. (via Romenesko)

Thug politics in Cudahy

Freelance reporter Jeffrey Anderson and LA City Beat senior editor Matthew Fleischman detail the rough politics of Cudahy, a city with about 26,000 residents, 1,000 registered voters, and "a dark side":

The images are grainy, but surveillance video from the night of October 26, 2008, is clear enough to show a hooded thug run up to the home of Cudahy City Council candidate Luis Garcia and hurl a brick at his front window. Seconds later, Garcia emerges from his house in a full sprint, clad only in his underwear, chasing after the assailant.

In the last 18 months, police reports show unknown assailants have launched a half dozen similar attacks on his house and property – including a Molotov cocktail assault that scorched the front end of his truck just feet from his home.

-snip

On March 3, the 1.2-square mile city in southeast L.A. County will hold just its second election in 10 years. The last election, in 2007, ended in a razor-thin, 33-vote defeat for Garcia and his running mate Daniel Cota, amidst allegations of electioneering and gang influence at the polls. That same election saw challenger Tony Mendoza drop out of the race after receiving telephone death threats.

Under reported

The story that the San Francisco Chronicle planned mass layoffs, and might even put itself up for sale, sparked heated speculation about what it all means for the newspaper industry, for Bay Area readers, for the workers, for Hearst Corp's various newspaper partners...

Indeed, there seemed to be a lot of room to speculate given all the questions left unanswered. David Cay Johnston, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, think he knows why - the Chronicle failed to do what it's supposed to do: cover the story.

Johnston lays out what went missing:

Not one word makes it into the paper from Chronicle unions, whose contracts Hearst CEO Frank Bennack wants to “quickly” rewrite with “significant” concessions under threat of closing the newspaper.

Not one word from others with an interest in whether the Chronicle dies after 144 years—say, interviews with the mayor, city supervisors, major advertisers, political scientists, or perhaps just a few scattered longtime readers.

Not one word from, say, an authoritative voice on Bay Area journalism like Alan D. Mutter, or from the Chronicle’s most severe critic, Bruce B. Brugmann, owner of the Bay Guardian.

And not one word about the changes in ownership of the Bay Area’s twenty-one newspapers, Hearst’s role in financing ownership changes in places like San Jose and the East Bay, and their meaning in the context of the demands for job cuts and, no doubt, reductions in wages and benefits and relaxation of work rules.

Rocky Mountain News to close*, **

AP reports that the Rocky Mountain News will close after Friday:

DENVER (AP) — E.W. Scripps says the Rocky Mountain News in Denver will publish its last edition Friday.

The company announced on the newspaper's Web site Thursday that its search for a buyer for the paper was unsuccessful.

*Updated 12:18 p.m.: The Rocky Mountain News has posted a story, which says Scripps still plans to sell "the masthead, archives and Web site" of the paper in a deal that excludes the agency that ran the paper with the Denver Post. The story ends with what seems to be a lament that even good work couldn't save the day:

In the past decade, the Rocky has won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than all but a handful of American papers. Its sports section was named one of the 10 best in the nation this week. Its business section was cited by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers as one of the best in the country last year. And its photo staff is regularly listed among the best in the nation when the top 10 photo newspapers are judged.

**Updated 2:17 p.m.: The Denver Post is hiring some of the Mountain News journalists. Dean Singleton says the Rocky's demise will help the Post financially. (via Romenesko)

Campaign derby

Board of Equalization Vice Chairwoman Judy Chu is scheduled to kick-off her campaign for Congress tomorrow. Chu has hired veteran political strategist Parke Skelton to run her campaign. Chu's chief rival in the race, State Sen. Gil Cedillo, has hired strategist Leo Briones, husband of former state Sen. Martha Escutia.

Dadaism?

I'm stumped.

Temple City troubles

An investigation into alleged pay-to-play corruption at Temple City City Hall led to searches of city offices and the homes of the mayor, two city council members, and a former council candidate. Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Times

The post-California Times

Shorter stories, fewer features, more Orange County... that's the look of local coverage in the Los Angeles Times after it eliminates the California section and cuts another 50 or so newsroom staffers. LA Observed

Secretary Hilda

The Senate has confirmed Rep. Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor by a vote of 80-17. Now that that's over with, all of the politicians who've been patiently positioning themselves to run for higher office once she got the job can begin their campaigning. (New York Times via LA Observed)

Chronicle plans deep cuts, talks about folding

Hearst Corp. announced today that it will make "significant" staff cuts at the San Francisco Chronicle and outsource the newspaper's print operations after losing $50 million in the last year alone.

If the changes don't result in big savings, the company said, it might be forced to put the paper up for sale.

From the Chronicle:

In a posted statement, Hearst said if the savings cannot be accomplished "quickly" the company will seek a buyer, and if none comes forward, it will close the Chronicle.

-snip-

"Given the losses the Chronicle continues to sustain, the time to implement these changes cannot be long. These changes are designed to give the Chronicle the best possible chance to survive this economic downturn and continue to serve the people of the Bay Area with distinction, as it has since 1865," Bennack and Swartz said in their statement.

"Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve," they added. "But without specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization, we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle, and, should a buyer not be found, to shut down the newspaper."

Hearst put the Seattle Post-Intelligencer up for sale in early January, with the threat that it might shutter the paper if no buyer came forward. The fate of the P-I is not yet known.

The trouble with niche

Going "niche" is all the rage these days in news publishing. Sculpt your coverage into something that a small, special-interest audience cares intensely about and they'll act as your umbrella in the shitstorm besetting the newspaper world.

But small, special-interest audiences have small, special interests. That runs counter to the very idea of what a newspaper is supposed to be. Trade publications and industry newsletters often ignore information they and their audiences don't deem essential. As a result, they and their audiences are walled off from information that, although not "essential" on first blush, might prove useful, even vital, but just didn't fit the niche.

When it comes to news, "niche" is the gated community of publishing. Which is to say, they're fine for those who want them, but not something you can force on a community.

Witness what is happening at the Deseret News, which is being "transformed" into a niche Mormon publication. The Salt Lake Tribune reports that an editor and a reporter were recently demoted because they wanted to stop the paper from slanting stories to make them "acceptable" to LDS readers and killing the ones that weren't. The demoted reporter was replaced by someone who "gets the tone" publisher Joe Cannon wants, state government editor Josh Loftin told the Tribune.

"They can never tell us what the 'tone' is," Loftin says. "They say, 'You'll know it when you get it.' "

Had Cannot started a publication for LDS readers, who would care if he wanted to strike the right "tone"? The problem is he's doing this in reverse and destroying something important in the process.

(Salt Lake Tribune story via Romenesko)

Domesticating the Times

In addition to the recent and planned layoffs and buyouts, the Los Angeles Times continues to scale back its foreign coverage. From Kevin Roderick at LA Observed:

Now, I'm told, Spain-based international investigations reporter Sebastian Rotella has accepted an offer he couldn't refuse to return to Los Angeles, Jerusalem-based Ashraf Khalil will leave the Times to stay in the Middle East, and Chris Kraul also turned down a return ticket to L.A. and will stay in Bogota, Colombia to freelance.

I'm most familiar with Rotella, who has done a superb job following the "war on terrorism." Khalil's departure, combined with the loss of the Chicago Tribune's Jerusalem bureau chief, leaves coverage of this vital region thinner at a time when you want fatter.

LA Observed also reports that a food writer, a readers' representative and two veteran administrative assistants lost their jobs last week. And, in what might be an inconvenient truce, San Fernando Valley reporter Jennifer Oldham leaves the Times just as the Daily News recedes to the Valley.

The curtain falls*

On Friday the Daily News laid off television critic David Kronke, leaving the paper with a single entertainment writer in the run-up to the Oscars. Today that lone entertainment writer, Greg Hernandez, was himself laid off. LA Observed confirms the news.

*Updated Feb. 24, 9:37 a.m.: Hernandez's farewell blog is here. He says he was "officially" told he was being laid off on Monday, but I'm told he may have learned earlier and decided to devote himself to the weekend's Oscar coverage despite it all. In the post, Hernandez says he will continue his Out In Hollywood blog "as a private enterprise with fresh content later this week (details to come)."

The pressmen (and women) protest

Angered over recent layoffs, members of the Pressmen's Union protested outside the Los Angeles Times building on Spring Street today.

Weekend bankruptcy report*

The company that owns the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News filed for bankruptcy on Sunday. The Journal Register Co., which owns 20 daily newspapers and a passel of weeklies, filed for bankruptcy on Saturday.

In related news, the CEO of the company that owns the Inquirer and Daily News got a 38-percent pay increase two months ago. Meantime, 31 "key" executives at the Journal Register are slated to receive $1.7 million in bonuses.

*Updated Feb. 24, 12:37 p.m.: The Philly execs will roll back their raises.

(All stories via Romenesko)

That stripped down look

In a note to readers today, the Daily News announced that it will no longer carry opinion or business pages inside the Monday A section, but will include "comics, puzzles, TV grid and advice columns." Oh, and Dilbert on A2.

The new 'less newsy' look is part of a redesign that's been hashed out over the last several weeks. The note says the paper will be "more reader-friendly" but acknowledges the changes were hastened by a desire to cut newsprint costs. The note also echoes Editor Carolina Garcia's pledge last week to focus almost solely the Valley:

We thank you for your loyal support as we confront this troubled economy. We are committed to producing a relevant local news report that is focused on the San Fernando Valley.

From the rumor file: I've heard rumblings that the Daily News plans to put its Valencia printing plant up for sale as early as next month. I'm not sure if that would mean restarting the presses in West Covina, since the three San Gabriel Valley papers are currently printed in Valencia, or if the DN and its SGV sisters would be outsourced to Southwest Offset Printing, which prints the Daily Breeze*.

*Originally I said the Press-Telegram was printed at SOP. It's printed in Valencia.

Another real-estate bubble about to burst

Nobody does a boom-and-bust cycle like America, but the Chinese are trying their best to catch up.

A pre-Olympic building boom has left Beijing has millions of square feet of expensive office space no one wants to lease, fancy stadiums no on wants to play in, and masses of high-end homes and apartments that no one can afford. The iconic Bird's Nest stadium is slated to become a mall.

Real estate prices are tumbling. Banks, however, have yet to begin writing down the loans.

Sound familiar?

From the Los Angeles Times:

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics reported this month that housing sales in the city dropped 40% last year. Chinese economists have predicted that housing prices will drop 15% to 20% in Beijing this year. Shanghai has experienced a similar decline.

"You can look at this perhaps as a healthy correction in the market," [Louis Kuijs, a senior economist at the World Bank in Beijing, said].

In the longer term, he said, "China's urbanization and overall development is going to lead to a very large additional demand for housing in the city."

Before that happens, the situation could get worse. Most of the real estate has been financed by Chinese banks, which have avoided writing down the loans. Eventually, they will be forced to, and that probably will have a ripple effect throughout the economy.

That ripple will almost certainly cross the Pacific and hit American banks that have come to rely on the Chinese for infusions of new capital.

Rise of the newspapers

The newspaper industry isn't crumbling everywhere. In Asia, it's booming. From Time:

Asia's media expansion has mirrored the fall of its dictators, as newspaper readers thrill at no longer getting just the day's propaganda. In Indonesia, the number of newspapers has increased from a few dozen when strongman Suharto was deposed in 1998 to roughly 800 today. The market is so buoyant that a new English-language paper, the Jakarta Globe, revved up its printing presses last November, just as several cash-strapped American papers were readying their final editions. "The Indonesian middle class is growing, and many households subscribe to two newspapers," says Ali Basyah Suryo, strategic adviser to the start-up Globe. "People like to hold the newspaper in their hands and even clip stories or save copies. It's seen as a valuable product."

-snip-

Even in China, where state censorship directives are dispensed daily to newspaper editors, a press revolution is under way.

How to stay professional

So what's next for professional journalism? Today's "To The Point" explores the question with three former print editors and the former publisher of "Off The Bus." It was produced by Sonya Geis, previously of the Washington Post.

The guests are:

Rick Edmonds, former managing editor of the St. Petersburg Times
Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time Magazine
Joel Kramer, editor and CEO of MinnPost.com and former editor of the Star Tribune
Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University

Download the show here.

Switching off Mayor of Television*, **,***

I'm not sure if this means Daily News television critic David Kronke got laid off today, but he's saying goodbye to his "Mayor of Television" blog. Here's the final line:

Look out for mayoroftelevision.com soonish.

Editor Carolina Garcia did say Thursday night that the paper could no longer afford music and film critics. I guess she meant TV, too.

*Updated 2:30 p.m.: Kronke did indeed get laid off today.

**Updated 4:12 p.m.: I'm told film critic Bob Strauss will be moved to the news side, leaving Greg Hernandez (Out in Hollywood) as the newspaper's sole entertainment writer.

***Updated Feb. 21, 9:37 p.m.: Four other departures to report. The paper laid off photographer Andy Holzman and web producer Julio Morales. Picture editor Roxanne Kotzman and copy editor Sharon Kaplan took buyouts.

Four in the morning

Rich and powerful towel-snapping society gets sued for grave robbing ... Neoconservatives don't really exist (although I swear I saw one at the grocery store the other day) ... The Associated Press might ask you to start subscribing ... Pay not attention to the man in the photograph

Buyouts and layoffs at Daily News*

As expected, the Daily News began another round of downsizing yesterday, when management formally accepted buyouts offers for copy editors who chose to leave the paper rather than make the forced 40-mile drive to West Covina to join the universal copy desk.

LA Observed has three of their farewell notes.

Up to eight newsroom staffers are expected to receive pink slips today. As reported yesterday, Editor Carolina Garcia said the paper can't cut fast enough to match falling revenues. She said she'll be forced to use whatever outside copy she can to fill her "wafer thin" newspaper.

*Updated 11:56 a.m.: Four copy editors have taken the buyout so far. They are copy desk chief Ed Richeson, who is retiring; news copy editor Carol Bidwell; news copy editor Alan McCabe, who was a rescue from the Santa Barbara and simply can't commute to West Covina, and features copy editor Melinda Kough.

Denise Swibold, who had been on loan to the city desk, will return to the copy desk.

Sensible

There are parts of stories I read about the future and fate of newspapers that I agree with, much that I don't. This Chicago Reader story by Michael Miner - I linked to it below - has it just about right.

Four in the morning

Furloughs in Florida

Layoffs in Denver (Post's managing editor included)

What should journalists do? Wait

What we're willing to pay for

GOP has mad flava

The Washington Times nabbed an exclusive interview with the Republican National Committee's first black chairman, Michael Steele. He promises some changes:

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

-snip-

“There was underlying concerns we had become too regionalized and the party needed to reach beyond our comfort” zones, he said, citing defeats in such states as Virginia and North Carolina. “We need messengers to really capture that region - young, Hispanic, black, a cross section ... We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-surburban hip-hop settings.”

But, he elaborated with a laugh, “we need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets.”

(Story link via Mike Allen at Politico, photo from Washington Times)

Bad day L.A.*

The newsrooms at the Los Angeles Times and Daily News of Los Angeles will be smaller before the weekend arrives.

The Daily News is expected to layoff a total of eight newsroom staffers between today and tomorrow. Editor Carolina Garcia, speaking at an SPJ meeting last night, said this is the fourth round of cuts since she arrived, adding that "we can't cut fast enough" to keep up with falling revenues. The paper is "truly in survival mode" and will now be focused almost exclusively on the San Fernando Valley, she said. She also reiterated that all of LANG's copy desks will merge as one in West Covina.

The Times will cut 70 or so reporters and editors today in its latest round of downsizing - a total of 300 employees will lose jobs at the paper. California section editor David Lauter, speaking on the same SPJ panel, said his paper will focus more on big, high-level, in-depth stories, and will have to rely more and more on part-timers, amateurs and freelancers for the "routine" and "incremental" reporting that it can no longer afford to do. Indeed, the Times plans to end the California section as part of its cost cutting plan.

*Updated at 9:54 a.m.: LA Observed now reports that the Times will cut a smaller number of positions today through a few layoffs and some voluntary buyouts and then make further cuts toward the end of the month when the California section folds. Long-time reporter Dan Morain is among those taking a buyout.

Capturing mindshare

The New Republic today published an internal memo from Politico on what makes a story a Politico story. From the memo:

Stories need to be both interesting and illuminating--we don’t have the luxury of running stories folks won’t click on or spend several minutes with in the paper.

a) Would this be a “most e-mailed” story?

b) Would I read this story if I hadn’t written it?

c) Would my mother read this story?

d) Will a blogger be inspired to post on this story?

-snip-

If your friends or source are buzzing about something related in any way to public affairs, don’t ask yourself WHETHER it’s a Politico story. Ask yourself HOW you can make it a Politico story, to capture built-in traffic and mindshare.

A sort of side note: Politico recently expanded its print edition to five days a week. Why? Because print is where the publication makes most of its money.

Union to explore employee purchase of P-I

The union representing employees at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will ask workers if they're interested in buying the paper to keep it a going concern. Owner Hearst put the P-I up for sale last month and threatened to either close or go Web-only unless a buyer stepped forward. (via Romenesko)

Huddled mass

Five newspapers in the New Jersey-New York area have agreed to share editorial content. From Editor & Publisher:

“As the Northeast Consortium, our publications will assist each other in gathering news, sports and features materials, giving our readers access to more and expanded content from the top newspapers in each of the respective markets,” Marc Kramer, CEO of the New York Daily News, stated in the release.

I'm sure this is a wise business decision, but it also puts the papers on the slippery slope of consolidation. Doing things together means fewer people doing the work, which usually means layoffs. Less competition means less varied coverage. And, of course, it means more of the same.

Slipping away

Yet another Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter chooses to leave the Los Angeles Times in anticipation of Thursday's newsroom cuts. LA Observed

Midnight moves

Republicans in Sacramento have little in the way of power, and so they're lashing out like cornered animals during these tense budget negotiations.

The Los Angeles Times reports that shortly after midnight this morning, Senate Republicans tossed out leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto and chose anti-taxman Dennis Hollingsworth of Murrieta to lead the caucus. It's too early to tell whether this dooms the messy budget proposal to close a $42 billion deficit - or even helps it.

The Senate had essentially locked itself in chambers yesterday to get the budget passes, which led to this little tidbit:

The frenetic day had begun with legislators carting sleeping bags, pillows and suitcases to work. Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) brought a bottle of cologne.

Name troubles

For a short few minutes yesterday the Los Angeles Times had President Barack Obama's last name misspelled on its website (the first "a" was missing), but it was nothing compared to what Yahoo did. Here's the error (caught by Gawker):

Science takes on terror hunt
A geographer uses innovative analysis to narrow Obama bin Laden's location to three sites.

Where has the good Times gone?

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Joe Mathews, now at the New America Foundation, writes in the New Republic about what's gone missing at his hometown newspaper:

You can count up the journalists who have left the profession and are out of work, but much of the carnage of the ongoing media industry can't be measured or seen: corruption undiscovered, events not witnessed, tips about problems that never reach anyone's ears because those ears have left the newsroom. With fewer watchdogs, you get less barking. How can we know what we'll never know?

-snip-

Gone is the stuff my neighbors and relatives read, the straightforward news about their local communities, particularly in the suburban counties that ring Los Angeles, a county of ten million people and 88 cities. A decade ago, the Times fielded more than a dozen reporters in the some of the county's larger cities. Dozens more toiled in the big, growing areas that border L.A.--Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange. Yes, those writers were young and green. Yes, they missed things, as inexperienced reporters do. But they were there. They watched council meetings and school board meetings and county supervisors meetings. They called the cops. They looked at court filings. The most ambitious dug deeply into problems of transportation and development.

And how many of those inexperienced reporters, now gone, won't grow up to become the experienced journalists leading the newsrooms of the future?

One point Mathews makes that I'd quibble with: Local papers cover the smaller cities and suburban counties of Southern California...

The line seems to imply that the local papers remain intact. Local papers have not escaped the carnage. Many have suffered far more damage than the Times - although far fewer people depend on them for comprehensive coverage. Still, even before the Times began amputating its limbs, it depended on healthy local papers to beat the bushes and scare out stories it never had the resources to find. That, too, is disappearing and shouldn't be ignored.

Polk awards

Winners of the 2008 George Polk Award include husband and wife Barry Bearak and Celia Dugger of the New York Times for their coverage of Zimbabwe's political turmoil, Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick of the now thrice-weekly Detroit Free Press for uncovering Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's illicit dealings, and Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Times for rooting out corruption in the Service Employees International Union. Associated Press

Four in the morning

Someone should have told Jeremy Piven

Who wants to captain a sunken ship of state? All the best people.

Will Politico burn itself out?

Memphis paper defends outing carriers of concealed- gun permits.

Extreme parallel construction

Let's follow the trail of a Feb. 6 press release from the office of San Bernardino County Supervisor Paul Biane.

Here's the first paragraph of the "news" release as posted on Feb. 6 on the San Bernardino Sun/Daily Bulletin breaking news blog:

Members of a recently formed public benefit corporation visited legislators and policy makers in Washington, D.C. this week to educate them about their efforts to tackle the Inland Empire's foreclosure and economic woes.

Here's the first paragraph of a Feb. 6 article "submitted by" David Zook on a site called BestSyndicationNews.com:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of a recently formed public benefit corporation visited legislators and policy makers in Washington, D.C. this week to educate them about their efforts to tackle the Inland Empire’s foreclosure and economic woes.

Here's the first paragraph of a Feb. 7 copyrighted column by Michael Neufeld on a site called RimoftheWorld.net:

Washington, D.C. – Members of a recently formed public benefit corporation visited legislators and policy makers in Washington, D.C. this week. The purpose of this visit was to educate them about their efforts to tackle the Inland Empire's foreclosure and economic woes.

Here's the first paragraph of a Feb. 16 story posted on ChinoHills.com under the byline of "Joe A":

Members of a recently formed public benefit corporation visited legislators and policy makers in Washington, D.C. this week to educate them about their efforts to tackle the Inland Empire's foreclosure and economic woes.

The dramatic coincidences in sentence construction and word choice can be found in each of the succeeding paragraphs as well.

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Daily News to cut again

The Southern California Media Guild says another eight newsroom staffers could lose their jobs at the Los Angeles Daily News. From the Daily News[room] blog:

The initial number of employees to be laid off is listed as eight, with a more detailed list of positions to follow. It's said these layoffs are separate from the copy desk transfer, and presumably any losses that may occur as a result of the transfer.

The transfer reference to here is a proposal to create a single LANG-wide copy desk to be based in West Covina. I posted on the latest rumblings about the plan earlier today.

Cutting to begin at the Press-Enterprise

Ron Redfern, publisher of the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, sent employees a memo on Tuesday to let them know that another round of layoffs is about to begin. Redfern said the company has yet to determine how many people will lose their jobs, but he hopes to be finished with the process by the end of April.

The cuts were anticipated. Parent company A.H. Belo announced in January that it was planning to cut as many as 500 people total at its various newspapers.

Read the full Redfern memo here.

About that universal copy desk

This may be nothing more than wishful thinking, but there's apparently talk in LANGland about the possibility of two centralized copy desks for the nine-paper chain instead of one. One would be based in West Covina to serve the Inland Division and one would be based further west to handle copy from the Los Angeles Daily News, Torrance Daily Breeze and Long Beach Press-Telegram.

That being said, I'm told LANG management has made clear to employees that they're moving ahead with a plan to create a single copy desk for all of the papers in West Covina.

Why does the speculation matter? Because, as LA Observed reported yesterday, as many as five Daily News copy editors (I'm now told four) have asked for severance rather than commute to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune headquarters every day. That's more than half of the DN's copy desk (by either count).

Would copy editors who take buyouts be able get their jobs back if a bifurcated copy desk plan was adopted? LANG management is trying to build some flexibility into the system. According to the Daily News[room] blog, management agreed to honor requests for severance after a "try out" period in West Covina - although the stated reason is that too few copy editors have agreed to make the move.

The blog also has Jim Janiga, MediaNews Group's head of human resources in California, once again saying no final decision has yet been made to move the Daily News desk to West Covina.

In the midst of all of this, I'm told a LANG-wide redesign is in the works. This would makes sense, since a shared copy desk (one or two) would want a more uniform set of templates to save time putting the papers together. In addition, consolidated copy desks and staff cuts inevitably lead to demands for shared content, which is easier if papers to share a similar design.

Welcome to the Press Club (No Press Allowed)

"It takes a certain amount of nerve to have an event at the National Press Club and then ban the press from covering it."

So begins Dan Milbank's tale of how former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe managed to give an off-the-record speech to a roomful of note taking nonjournalists at a National Press Club event co-sponsored (sponsorship later withdrawn) by one of the nation's leading political news organization.

Tribune Co. trims some more

LA Observed updates the looming staff cuts at the Los Angeles Times here, and notes that sister-paper Chicago Tribune laid off 12 reporters and will close its Jerusalem bureau (at an extremely odd time). Jerusalem bureau chief Joel Greenberg, formerly of the New York Times, is among the pink slipped.

City-without-a-newspaper panel

SPJ in LA has expanded its "Imagine a City Without a Newspaper" panel. Here's the latest list of guests:

Carolina Garcia, executive editor, Daily News

David Lauter, editor of the California section of the Los Angeles Times

James Rainey, reporter, Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky

Geneva Overholser, director, USC Annenberg School of Journalism

Fox TV's John Schwada will host.

The event takes place on Feb. 18 and will be held at the Metropolitan Water District, 700 N. Alameda, starting at 6:30 p.m. For tickets or information, call (323) 593-3350, or email spjlosangeles@gmail.com.

Media in the media

Stephens Media, which owns the Las Vegas Review-Journal, suspends its 401k matches. E&P

Alan Mutter says MediaNews Group and Morris Publishing have a 72.9% chance of defaulting on their debts. Reflections of a Newsosaur

Mark Potts looks at the better online news sites. Recovering Journalist

Five Los Angeles Daily News copy editors reportedly took buyouts rather than transfer to West Covina. LA Observed

One more:

The Economist asks whether newspapers will find a home on the Kindle. Economist

Double up

The Denver Newspaper Agency, which oversees business operations at the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, now says it wants to cut $35 million in expenses. Earlier reports said the company wanted a mere $18 million.

Another revenue challenge?

The Utah Legislature is considering a bill that could further undermine the financial health of newspapers in that state. According to blogger J.M. Bell, the bill would allow legal notices to be posted "by the state for a “small” fee as an option to paying the hundreds of dollars charged by print media."

Legal ads are the life's blood of many smaller newspapers and helped attract the chains to the suburbs.

Lawmakers all a-Twitter

Does knowing a plane crashed in the Hudson 15 minutes earlier than it's reported by the New York Times count as revolutionary? I'm not sure it does, but I am interested in the Twittering going on in the halls of Congress, as attention-starved lawmakers slip the surly bonds of their staff flaks and Tweet from inside closed door meetings and gatherings.

From Time magazine:

At least four GOP Representatives, for instance, Twittered in real time President Obama's meeting two weeks ago with their conference on Capitol Hill to discuss the stimulus plan, raising questions about the levels of privacy members can now expect from closed-door meetings.

That's a micro-blogging trend I can get behind.

The Sunlight Foundation even offers a running feed of Congressional Tweets (you can even download a widget for you website). After watching for a few minutes, one realizes how boring legislators can be. However, there are nuggets of news there - for instance, a couple lawmakers just Tweeted that the stimulus bill is unlikely to come up for a vote until Friday.

As Twittering becomes more common on Capitol Hill it's also likely to become more formalized (think about the campaign blogs), meaning they will be written by staffers to promote their boss's agenda. But for now, let's hold out hope that something interesting leaks out.

Papers want to get paid

Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging, Samuel Johnson once said.

After years of searching for the elusive profit-from-free business model, feverishly throwing staffers over the side to stay afloat, newspaper owners now seem resigned to the fact that journalism, not advertising space, is their chief product. (To give you an idea of how far the insanity had gone, I once had a publisher tell our newsroom that our main competition was direct mail.)

The New York Times is reportedly exploring ways to charge for content - many media experts think the Times will have to move first on this front - and there's a growing chorus of media big wigs saying that newspapers will have to find some way to charge for content to survive.

The best method for extracting payment is still a matter of much debate. Micropayments? Pass the virtual hat? (Yesterday, the New York Times hosted a "battle plan for newspapers" round-table debate. You can read it here.)

But charging directly for content isn't an easy sell, as Slate's founding editor Michael Kinsley learned from experience - and it also presents a moral hazard, as "popular" and "newsworthy" are not often synonymous.

At least the conversation is happening.

Side note: Kinsley's final point is nuts:

With even half a dozen papers, the American newspaper industry will be more competitive than it was when there were hundreds. Competition will keep the Baghdad bureaus open and the investigative units stoked with dudgeon. Competition is growing as well among Web sites that think there is money to be made performing the local paper’s local functions. One or two of these will turn out to be right. And then, who will pay even a nickel for the hometown rag?

That's the sound of someone who never acknowledged how many stories in the big papers were hatched and incubated in small papers, and never thought corruption in Scranton was all that interesting.

24-hour party people

In an interestingly headlined post about President Barack Obama's $800 billion stimulus plan, Andrew Sullivan predicted the president would roll Republicans and confound media analysts who have yet to come to terms with his political style:

Politically, as the dust settles, I suspect Obama outfoxed his opponents, again. They are playing the 24 hour news cycle game. That's all they know (ditto cable news). Obama isn't. That's why he's president. Eventually, they'll figure it out.

The argument was bolstered by a recent Gallup poll that showed, despite all of the pontificating about Obama's misguided leap into bipartisanship and a resurgent GOP, Obama still had the upper hand. The results even got former Republican lawmaker Joe Scarborough's attention.

Obama is an accomplished writer and author of two books. His political cycle seems to mimic that of his writing. There's foreshadowing, the building of suspense, sometimes dry expository; but he campaigns and governs in chapters. In the end, he makes himself the central character in the story. He has shown the 24-hour news cycle to be artificial, a self-imposed schedule to mask thin reporting and weak strategy.

The loyal opposition and the media (especially cable news) needs to adjust to the new timeline if they are going to effectively counter/cover the White House.

Roiling in Woodland Hills

According to the Daily News[room] blog, Los Angeles Daily News Editor Carolina Garcia on Friday told reporters and editors that the planned copy desk merger with the San Gabriel Valley Tribune will take place in March. She also told staffers to expect more layoffs, but said the paper would offer buyouts first.

The Daily News[room] reports:

The potential number of layoffs would be dependent on how many employees accepted the buyout offer, but initial reports suggest the target is five or six.

The details and terms of the buyout package are unclear at this time, but several employees have stepped forward in response to the offer.

J-school starts news site

Students at USC's graduate school of journalism have started an online news and commentary site called Neon Tommy under the supervision of Marc Cooper, who's also digital news director at the school. Cooper told fishbowlLA that NeTo is "meant to compete with anybody and everybody on local and national news."

A Sirius problem

No, satellite radio doesn't make enough money either. Sirius XM is about to file for bankruptcy.

TARP indigestion

Some banks have had a hard time with their taxpayer chemotherapy treatments and say they want to stop. From the New York Times:

Wall Street banks have taken billions of taxpayer dollars. Now some of them are starting to wonder if they should give the money back.

Even before the government announced its latest efforts to fix the troubled banking industry on Tuesday, executives at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said they wanted to repay the money quickly. Both banks received $10 billion under the first rescue plan last fall.

-snip-

“We just think that operating our business without the government capital would be an easier thing to do,” said David A. Viniar, the chief financial officer of Goldman. “We’d be under less scrutiny, and under less pressure. Not that we’d be out of the public eye; we’re still going to be in the public eye.”

It's good they're feeling so healthy again, right?

Also, shouldn't we take some comfort in the fact that the Dow dropped today after Treasurer Timothy Geithner laid out TARP II? Like, maybe stockholders are coming to grips with the reality that the government can't make their broken eggs whole again.

Villaraigosa on "Which Way, LA?"

Warren Olney asks Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa about water rationing, city budget cuts, and the upcoming election on tonight's "Which Way, LA?" at 7:30 p.m. on 89.9 FM. Other guests are Andy Lipkis, founder and president of TreePeople, who discusses ways to conserve water in California, and Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione, who talks about what counties are gonna do with those IOUs the state is handing out instead of money.

Deadline day at the Times

The Los Angeles Times will cut another 75 reporters and editors and the cuts are expected to start Monday (Joe Scott via LA Observed).

Twitter-dee-dee

Is Twitter for real or a fad? All I know is the service inspires bad headlines (see above). Also, New York Magazine has an interesting story about the company (via Romenesko):

You can forgive journalists their Twitter obsession. If you haven’t noticed, we’re in an economic clusterphooey of historic proportions, and many analysts are blaming the media’s failure, in particular, to create information-sharing services like Twitter. But Twitter isn’t making any money yet, either.

Lean times

Newsweek, in retreat, turns to "The Bluffer's Guide" for help:

Starting in May, articles will be reorganized under four broad, new sections — one each for short takes, columnists and commentary, long reporting pieces like the cover articles, and culture — each with less compulsion to touch on the week’s biggest events. A new graphic feature on the last page, “The Bluffer’s Guide,” will tell readers how to sound as if they are knowledgeable on a current topic, whether they are or not.

Rocky Mountain news

Does the Rocky Mountain News have a suitor?

Padgett chronicles layoffs in Times' press room

Ed Padget at the Los Angeles Times Pressmens' 20 Year Club blog has been chronicling the layoffs of press workers over the last few days. The Times announced Wednesday that 63 pressmen (and women) will get pink slips.

Padgett also notes that pressman Michael Reyes has died.

The children are the future

Few people love journalists - especially other journalists, and most especially publishers who see journalists as mini-black holes from which no profit can escape.

But lots of people love kids - especially their own, and even people without children feel a certain responsibility to make the world a better place for the generations to come.

So, it's perhaps a good thing that the professional journalism preservation crowd has begun to employ a generational appeal when trying to focus minds the Great Newspaper Quandary.

Don't just save journalism for journalists. Do it for the kids.

Walter Isaacson gave the generational-appeal argument a shot in last week's Time magazine to knock down the "information wants to be free" excuse for giving away journalism:

When I used to go fishing in the bayous of Louisiana as a boy, my friend Thomas would sometimes steal ice from those machines outside gas stations. He had the theory that ice should be free. We didn't reflect much on who would make the ice if it were free, but fortunately we grew out of that phase. Likewise, those who believe that all content should be free should reflect on who will open bureaus in Baghdad or be able to fly off as freelancers to report in Rwanda under such a system.

I say this not because I am "evil," which is the description my daughter slings at those who want to charge for their Web content, music or apps. Instead, I say this because my daughter is very creative, and when she gets older, I want her to get paid for producing really neat stuff rather than come to me for money or decide that it makes more sense to be an investment banker.

(As an aside, I'd argue that information is free. I never had to pay for it, save for a few copying costs charged by cheap-ass cities, in all my ten years in print. Yet every story I produced required time, consideration, experience and editing - none of which come for free. Indeed, one could argue that plants want to be free, too, but unless we learn to forage we have to pay farmers for cultivating the lettuce and the corn. If we want to change how the economy compensates people for their work, that's another matter.)

Steven Brill, in a post today on Romenesko, makes a point similar to Isaacson's, although with somebody else's child. Brill endowed a journalism institute at Yale and promises the students who enroll jobs at the end:

The implicit and now-traditional part of the deal is that if you do all this and become a Yale Journalism Scholar, I will also get you a job – which I do, placing them with alumni of The American Lawyer, Court TV and Brills Content (plus Yale alumni) all over the country and world.

The problem is that now I fear I am guiding them off a plank. As one parent put it to me last fall, "why are you luring my daughter into something that will never pay her loans when she could go to work for McKinsey?" I have been trying to construct an answer for her.

Appeals to owners' business sense have hit a wall. Corporate bosses are busy running amok in their mad plan to save newspapers by killing the newspaper business. Those who think they see the cliff ahead are riding herd toward it, hoping resurrection will be found on the rocky ground below.

Appeals to readership have limited success because most people don't know, or really care, how news is produced as long as it's there when they open the front door or turn on the Internet machine. Arguments for newsroom self-preservation fail because they sound arrogant and feed counter-arguments that aging journalists are simply afraid of the new, or are selfishly trying to earn a living, or are jealously guarding bandwidth from roaming hordes of citizen journalists.

Will a focus on the young people who hear the calling have more success? Will owners come to realize they have a responsibility not just to their bottom line but to generations to come?

Maybe, if the appeal echoes in the halls of our top newspapers and news organizations, which have to realize that their future sits in the offices of the crumbling community newspapers around the country.

Cable news goes right

In covering the debate over the stimulus bill, cable news shows booked twice as many Republican lawmakers as Democratic lawmakers, a survey by Think Progress found.

Before anyone blames the imbalance on a right-wing bias, first consider this is cable news, which has a bias toward ratings. Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic reasons that cable news bookers are looking to the White House, not Congress, to supply the Democratic response. While I'm sure there's some truth to that, I don't think it fully explains the disparity.

In the absence of reporting, the easiest way to appear like you're explaining something is to talk to the opposition. Not only do you get them to do the work of analyzing a complicated issue you don't really understand, but you look like you're holding someone accountable.

Of course, there's also an anti-bias bias at play - accuse the media of leaning left (and loving Obama) for long enough and they'll be sure to lean right just to prove you wrong.

Secret club of dysfunction

The Sacramento Bee says enough with the secret budget negotiations favored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, especially since they haven't worked.

Reporting on blogs' reporting

Just how much of the content on the top blog sites constitutes original reporting? Not much at all, according to a spot survey done by Simon Owens at Bloggasm.

TechCrunch tops the list at 37 percent; a few of the blogs, including Daily Kos, tie for bottom with zero percent. Huffington Post checks in at 18 percent.

Of course, no one said blogs need to provide original reporting, but the survey should give pause to those who think Huffington Post and the like will pick up where shuttered and shrunken newspapers leave off.

Also, some might dispute Owens' definition of original reporting, but it would have to be stretched pretty far to improve the numbers much.

Fairey, the AP and Boston police

The Associated Press reports that L.A. artist Shepard Fairey, best known for his "Hope" poster of Barack Obama, the same "Hope" poster that AP claims infringes on a copyrighted AP photo, was arrested in Boston for tagging.

Furloughs spread eastward*

MediaNews Group employees in Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota have now been told to take one-week, unpaid furloughs. AP, MPR

*Update: And Massachusetts and New Hampshire (DBJ). MediaNews has papers in 11 states, so I imagine this means six down, five to go.

Stuff on the Web

Shoddy science in the justice business.

The DEA goes rogue in raiding pot clubs.

Babies as anti-depressant medication.

No prosecutions in the CIA for torture.

Guild agrees to furloughs*

I missed this Monday...

The guild representing newsroom employees at the Los Angeles Daily News made a deal with management on unpaid furloughs:

...the Guild agreed to accept five days of unpaid leave per bargaining-unit employee by March 31, 2009. Guild representatives proposed — and the company agreed — that in the event any unit member is laid off during that period, the company will pay the employee for time lost during the furlough.

*Correction: I originally reported guild members at the Long Beach Press-Telegram were part of the furlough deal. According to the Stress-Telegram, they are still in negotiations with management.

Going paperless

The SPJ of Los Angeles is hosting a round-table discussion on Wednesday, Feb. 18 entitled "Imagine a City Without a Newspaper" with LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Geneva Overholser, director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. John Schwada of Fox television will moderate.

Yaroslavsky, you'll remember, took issue with Los Angeles Times Publisher Eddie Hartenstein's decision to kill the California section.

The event will be held at the Metropolitan Water District, 700 N. Alameda, starting at 6:30 p.m. For tickets or information, call (323) 593-3350 or email spjlosangeles@gmail.com.

A tax on the White House

A new revelation of tax troubles could trip up the already wobbly nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, to be Secretary of Labor. USA Today discovered that on Wednesday Solis' husband paid about $6,400 in back taxes to settle a lien on his auto repair business. On Thursday, a vote on her nomination was put on hold. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Solis remains the president's choice for the job.

Were Solis to withdraw her name, a whole host of California politicians would be stuck doing the jobs they were recently elected to do.

Rough draft

A letter to advertisers saying that the Denver Post will be the only newspaper in town as of March 1 is merely a ... test, according to the agency that oversees the joint operating agreement between the Post and the Rocky Mountain News. Just like pre-writing an obituary, I guess.

Times to cut press workers

The pressmen's union at the Los Angeles Times learned today that 63 of its 244 members will be laid off in another round of cuts at the embattled newspaper. LA Observed provides some additional context here.

'Unfortunate coincidence'

A.H. Belo hands out executive bonuses on the day it announces sweeping layoffs at its newspapers. (via Romenesko)

Moving day

Daily Breeze staff photographer Scott Varley's slide show of the final day at the old Daily Breeze building in Torrance.

Only a matter of time*,**

Former Sen. Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name for consideration to become President Barack Obama's czar on health care reform and secretary of Health and Human Services. Daschle had come under fire for failing to pay a substantial amount of taxes, but he'd also made millions working for health-related companies. AP

*Daschle is the second person today to pull out over tax troubles. Nancy Killefer jumped ship earlier this morning.

**Daschled hopes: Why did Daschle have to step aside when Timothy Geithner didn't? Maybe this old campaign commercial, posted on YouTube, provides a hint.

There will be more of this

As newspapers, and news organizations generally, cut pay, slash staff and eliminate pathways for advancement, more and more journalists are going to slip out of the profession and into something more lucrative. That often means landing a job in the industry the journalist knows best: the one he or she has been covering. The New York Times takes a look at some of the migration of top political journalists into top political slots, but the trend is no different the further down the chain one goes. It should raise concerns about bias - if a reporter is worried about pending layoffs, or buying a house, or having a baby, will he or she lighten up in hopes of preserving a bridge to a better (pay)day?

A shrinking Modesto Bee

The Modesto Bee is about to get even smaller.

Last week, management sent out a memo outlining a plan to make major cuts in the number of pages and sections put out by the McClatchy-owned newspaper. From the memo:

In the next several weeks, we'll be:

§ Consolidating and/or combining some sections.

§ Reducing the number of section fronts.

§ Eliminating some pages and sections altogether.

§ Refocusing some sections with content that we think will be a plus for readers.

Read the full memo here.

Last July, McClatchy laid off 80 people at the Modesto Bee and moved the paper's production to Sacramento.

Politico hires Cloud, and other online news

The lead story on Politico this morning was about a classified report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff urging a new military strategy in Afghanistan. Although the subject matter is fascinating and important, the byline also caught my eye: David S. Cloud, former military correspondent for the New York Times.

Politico picked him up as part of a strategic shift in coverage, given that the campaign is over and the actual governing has begun. Cloud will lead the foreign policy coverage for the political website.

In the same vein, Politico hired Josh Gerstein, formerly of the New York Sun, to cover legal affairs.

Indeed, websites appear to be bolstering their political coverage with successful traditional journalists. Talking Points Memo recently hired former Time and Newsweek reporter Matt Cooper to oversee its Washington-focused blog.

Management changes in LANG's Inland Divsion*

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.

Monday links

A California GOP official wants to censure any Republican legislator who agrees to balance the budget through tax increases.

Alan Mutter explains why newspapers can't quit print yet (even the online juggernaut Politico relies on a printed paper to bolster revenue). Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, agrees about print, and has more to say about newspapers here.

The managing editor of the Desert Sun of Palm Springs winds up shirtless along the highway.

Less is more colorful at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Stop the press talk

Back on Dec. 5 I'd mentioned that several newspapers, including some in the LANG chain, were rumored to be in discussions with the Tribune Co. to have their papers printed at the Los Angeles Times printing press. Several people inside LANG have asked for updates on the talks, hoping that any savings made on the production side might preclude further newsroom cuts. But long-time Times pressman Ed Padgett says Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy filing probably put an end to the plan:

The men and women in Operations at the newspapers had one last hope before the ax fell, producing other newspapers within the walls of the Los Angeles Times, that hope quickly dissipated with the Tribune Company filing bankruptcy on December 8th, 2008.

The plan had the Los Angeles Times signing contracts to produce The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s after the union contract was signed, which all changed after the bankruptcy filing. The bankruptcy court allowed the Chicago Tribune to produce the Wall Street Journal, which gave everyone hope we too would be granted the same permission.

Other newspapers knocking on the door of the Los Angeles Times were the Korean Times, The New York Times, The Orange County Register, and the Dean Singleton newspapers such as the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Padgett goes on to say that the Times might outsource its own production to Transcontinental, "a Canadian Company that will soon take over all production from the San Francisco Chronicle in May of this year."

Severe winter weather to continue

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, signaling six more weeks of winter. With highs in the upper 70s to low 80s here in Los Angeles, I'm not sure I can take it - although there is a chance of rain predicted for later this week.

Editorialists take on Sacramento

At least eleven of Dean Singleton's California newspapers ran front-page editorials today criticizing the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for failing to resolve a months-old budget impasse. From the AP:

[San Jose] Mercury News Editor Dave Butler, who also serves as vice president for news for the chain's papers, said he thought the front page placement was needed to underscore the issue's importance. He said each newspaper's editor made an independent decision about whether to run the editorial out front.

Here's a sample of the outrage from the Los Angeles Daily News:

Californians should be furious. We are.

That's why the Daily News is taking the rare step of running an editorial on the front page. This inaction is so serious that it threatens the economic stability of every resident and business of this state.

We encourage others to raise their voices as well. The political cost of delay must become too high for lawmakers to cling to principles that grim economic reality have rendered meaningless.

It should be noted that most of these same newspapers shuttered their Sacramento bureaus within the last few years.

News judgment*

In just the last 15 minutes, I watched as this story (about Michael Phelps smoking weed) pushed this story (about civil rights abuses in the war on drugs) off the front page of the Washington Post website.

*Update: Law enforcement judgment - The sheriff of Richland County in South Carolina says he wants to charge Phelps with a crime. Phelps' sponsors, on the other hand, could care less about the boy with the bong.