The Los Angeles Daily News newsroom got a little smaller this week. Online content producer Cliff Redding and web producer/designer Tom Gapen received layoff notices. A third person, from circulation, also got a pink slip. The latter layoff was mentioned last week.
Additionally, the city editor of the Los Angeles Daily News, John Miller, is leaving the paper to teach high school English in Kuwait, according to a memo obtained by LA Observed.
(Corrections: Original post had Mr. Redding's and Mr. Gapen's titles wrong.)
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41 comments:
Turn around is way over due how do you feel now that you are on the wrong end of the red ink
Boy oh boy, the hits never end at this group of misfits. These layoffs should clearly enrich the kitty to make more purchases and further build an empire that all look upon fondly.
Just curious: When Singleton bought the Daily Bulletin in 1999, we had a total of 99 editors, reporters and photographers in our newsroom.
Are there 99 in the whole group anymore?
Lean Dean strikes again. MNG keeps giving employees a big middle finger!
Look, there use to be approx 1200 journalists at the LA Times, things change. The current business model is dead. Not to many out there smart enough to milk the cow till the milk ends.
The problem with this group is they flat out don't know how to talk to employees. They have them busy doing non productive things rather than selling the product for instance.
Their esteemed leader at lang hasn't had a creative sales idea since he joined the group.
Yet, the penalty flag always gets thrown at those who had nothing to do with creating the problems.
Those poor kids in Kuwait.
Class, get ready for Mr. Ego Maniac.
Best of luck to John. I worked with him briefly about four years ago before I was laid off. It is not only classless to anonymously take cheap shots at a guy who's leaving, it is very inaccurate.
this entire blog is mostly filled with anonymous posters...i guess when i take a shot at singleton and his lack of a team that is classless too...however accurate.
It's wrong to take cheap shots at real people.
Dude, you must have a beef with John Miller - maybe he tore apart your poorly-written story or something. I worked with the guy for several years. He's funny, a gentleman and a scholar...a real pro all around. I wish him and his wife much success overseas.
12:30 a.m. i totally agree with you. i worked with john too. He will do really well. I wish him all the best.
So how many reporters are left at the DN?
Other LANG papers have less than a dozen news reporters and less than half a dozen sports/entertainment reporters.
I must add that I was not a photo/graphics editor, officially. While many people do a little of everything in that newsroom my official job was that of web producer/developer/designer. I also contributed a blog, slide shows, video and other content online.
It is significantly revealing that when it came time to lose two more full-time employees they chose both from online, cutting that staff from four to two.
They clearly don't see online journalism as important and continue to believe that print is the only way forward.
As for John Miller, I've known him for years. He's a good guy and I know he'll do well in Kuwait.
To the anonymous poster who asked how it feels to be on the wrong end of the red ink, it feels pretty awful, thanks.
so they believe in print and not online...unreal. two 3rd graders would come to a better conclusion. and folks wonder what is going wrong with newspapers. mng, lang, bang or whatever you are named now, what are you thinking? i can here the conversation now, let us cut the growth engine that has some potential, even though we havent a clue on how to do it and back the print and deliver model that has been working great for the last ten years!
Hey 12:30 a.m.:
People in LANG talk. We all know who the good editors are and who the jackholes are. We know just by editing sister paper copy if editors are good at what they do, or if they just phone it in. You must either be John Miller's wife, his pot smoking buddy, or his gimp to call him funny, a gentleman and a scholar.
From what I know, the guy gave up years ago. He was rarely around, made up sick days, and when he was there, didn't care much about the well being of his staff. Maybe he can't be blamed entirely, since enthusiasm around LANG has been depleted. But it's a shame guys like him are allowed to keep their jobs, while others still like what they do and try to do it well even when the shit in front is piled up high.
This guy was allowed to continue on because the executive editor, like many of the executive editors, doesn't give two crumbs to the wind either.
I guess everybody is hated by somebody but I worked with the guy remotely when I was in the one of the north county bureaus and John's one of the sharpest editors I've ever worked with. I doubt he'd even remember me but I learned a lot from my brief interactions with him and a fun workshop he put together. If he smokes weed God bless him, I would too if I could keep things as together as he did.
12:51. why don't you reveal yourself instead of anonymous? once again, miller is the real deal. a class act. no need for cheap shots on here.
11:53. well, no surprise there. they are newspapers, after all. and quite frankly, the print side is the only thing making money at LANG NEWSPAPERS. no revenue from online. so of course why would they care as much about online. it's common sense.
Well, I'm 12:30 am and I stand by my comment on Miller...your turn Anonymous...
So someone who doesn't know and has never worked with John Miller takes others' words and regurgitates them ... anonymously. Classy!
Sounds like someone in San Gabriel is still bitter about John hiring away a talented reporter. MEOW!!!
1:18, if this isn't written with tongue in cheek, no wonder they are on a fast road to the tar pits. The issue is they should be making MORE money in print and they should be growing online at a much faster clip. They haven't a clue on how to do either. Where do you think the print revenue will come from in a couple of years? Classified is toast. National will be. They can't figure out how to sell local...what's left? Advertising budgets are rapidly embracing online at every level. As I hear it, dinosaurs USE TO ROAM THE EARTH, they aren't so many left today.
Part of the problem with MNG and LANG is they change directions more than Lady Gaga changes costumes.
I remember a few years back when online was going to be king with the "HUB" fiasco. funding was taken away from the print side of editorial to fund this special group, rather than fund it separately. Both areas suffered.
Before that was LA.COM with their westside palatial offices.
LANG is clearly a sinking ship and casting employees to the sharks isn't going to change anything. Nor is buying the Register and gutting it.
Good point last poster. Ready fire aim is their creedo.
This group of suits is like a group of four year olds with hammers. Everything in the room looks like a nail.
no $$$ to be made in online folks. that's why.
well, it should come as no surprise to anyone at LANG. the writing has been on the wall for years. folks just refused to see it and didn't make plans or look for another job and your number came up and you got pink slipped.
may i ask why this is such a surprise? all they do is cut cut cut. no surprise there. everyone should have a back up plan and quite frankly everyone should have been looking starting about 3 years ago when 25 people were cut.
there is money to be made online, look at the firms doing so. these people have no vision, brains or plans.
the problem is that there is no content. people don't come to a Daily News website for stuff that is ap etc. you can get that on any site. it's all over the internet. so the LANG websites do NOT make money and really don't get much traffic either. sorry to say but it's overrated and unfortunately that was part of the problem.
4:17: yes but not for a newspaper website. facts are facts. maybe other types of outlets but not newspapers. at least not LANG papers. plus, they don't get many hits, relatively speaking. you would be surprised. so there really wasn't a need for a fancy graphics artist. people didn't come to the site for that. you can put down the decisions made all you want but in reality it made sense.
it makes sense if all you look at is the bottom line today, right now. "online makes less money than print? better cut online." I mean yeah, that is true. but folks are suggesting that if LANG leadership had a little vision, they might instead say something like, "online makes less money than print? well, we've underinvested in online and hamstrung ourselves with bad decisions, that's why. seems like there is still a huge upside potential in online, since other companies in our business have been able to do much better with online, and profits on the print side are stagnant in good years and declining in bad years. maybe we should rethink our online strategy rather than just falling back on outmoded standards like the print and delivery model."
Hold on a minute here. The real problem is you, the worker bees. I'm not pointing fingers but you guys do more and more at whatever cost (read here your time to be home) for no additional pay. When the bell rings, go home, period. But oh no, you have to stay way overtime to finish the ridiculous amount of work given to each one of you on a daily basis. You have created the problem by not speaking up, as a group, and saying enough is enough. Work conditions rival those of third-world sweat shops, and you all allow it. So that is the reason why people keep getting cut. You as a group will take on more and more work because you do not want to piss any one off and get canned next, but you all are on the chopping block. Sooner or later, your number will be called and you will be pink-slipped too.
10:20, nothing this group does makes sense. And, to those who say there is no content, they are correct. Why not get some that might, heaven forbid, draw readers and advertisers. We don't want to do that. Vision is one key here and this group lost their sight several years ago.
I for one am sicken tired of hearing blame against "anonymous" commentators. Anonymous is just fine because the top reason I read these postings is to hear stuff written by name about big shots, and the mores the better. I say the cat calling the kettle black, the better, especially about bosses.
singleton surrounds himself with talentless hicks. malignant slugs like david butler, sharyn betz and rob lowman, to name just the reptilian few that immediately spring to mind. i spent a few wasted years there. it's taken a while to get the acrid stench of that place off me. i feel sorry for some of the staff who are forced by circumstances to remain -- the two or three that are actually genuinely nice people. as for the rest, the day you find yourselves jobless and in fear for the very roof over your heads won't come soon enough.
i'd like to add a vignette (lang editors will have to look that one up) about the day ron kaye - another mind-numbingly obnoxious daily news "personality" who became editor about 20 years past his due date - added a community news section to the daily news' nearly rural website, i dunno six or seven years ago. the first thing kaye did after hiring a new $6-an-hour staff of valley sophisticates straight out of fresno community college, or somewhere, was to invite them - and only them - over to his house for a barbecue. this was done with top-volume kaye bluster directly in front of his long-ignored print staff. characteristically, he was completely olivious to the insult -- not that anyone from print would've willingly wasted a saturday going to his house, without being paid for the time or forced at gunpoint anyway.
the misguided community news site was, naturally, a complete fiasco. ugly looking and never promoted, the thing quickly withered and died with fewer and fewer submissions.
ron kaye's little fan club of eager-beaver "community news" aggrevators were subsequently fired - by him or by the venomous butler?? who can remember? - one by one.
hope they enjoyed that barbecue, the poor deluded kids.
Now THAAAT's what I like to read! Good old anonymous name-callin' name after naming name! Mix it up with a little ole fashion sanctimony sauce, add a dash of peppery vituperation, sprinkle in some see-lective memory bits, moisten with some crocky-dile tears of umbrage 'not me but for them others' who ain't got the gumption to leave ... and thaaaat's the way I like my LANG vignette gumbo served up, greasy, gassy and cold! Gimme more! Mo' names! Names!
Grape vine says MORE layoffs coming in August at LANGland. Run for your lives while you can. Find something else to do while journalism picks itself back up.
look at the handwriting on the wall people, a dead organization. leave while you still are employeed. there in NO hope for this group to increase revenue. Even if they had an increased revenue stream these jokers would still screw up, but the layoffs would halt. but, we all know that there will be zero creativity coming from hamilton on the ad side of the house. revenues continue to fall, circulation will decline, good people will leave and the product will cease to publish. Gee, I wonder how many new young readers they are attracting?
what i would like to know is why no one leaves...given all this bad stuff? is it sheer laziness of looking for another job? is it insecurity? what is it? in all seriousness please shed some light because I don't get it. there are some young folks at the DN, the Breeze and San Gabe who just stick around knowing there is no future and they need to start looking and get out. even the older folks. they aren't even looking. there are jobs out there folks. that is just an excuse. everyone who has left has gone on and done really well. don't kid yourself.
re. Mister Rockthrowing Backbench Sideliner (whatever that handle is supposed to mean): since when have you thrown any rocks? you sit here and urge others to name names.
you're that gimp with the limp chasing after sinatra in "golden arm" - "c'mon, champ, you can do it. you're still the champ. c'mon, go for it."
meanwhile, like the typical singleton employee, you watch the clock and do nothing, waiting for others to take action.
why don't you have the guts to name names - even as "anonymous?"
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