No food, no features at Daily News*

The Daily News of Los Angeles has cut features editor Sharyn Betz and food editor Natalie Haughton, according to LA Observed. A source inside the paper say they expect more cuts in the days ahead and possible further editorial consolidation between the Daily News, Daily Breeze and Press-Telegram.

*Updated, 10/21: LA Observed's headline says it all: "LANG papers begin the inevitable consolidation." The inevitable consolidation begins with the naming of Carolina Garcia as editor of the Daily News, Daily Breeze, and Press-Telegram, under three-paper publisher Jack Klunder. Toni Sciacqua will become managing editor - digital; a designation that says a lot about the future direction of the news cluster.

People who work at the three papers think this step will lead to more layoffs, as the papers eliminate redundancy. It's possible this is also a first step toward consolidation of all nine LANG papers, as happened with BANG in Northern California.

Layoffs and leavings at the Daily News

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.)

Other LANG layoffs

In addition to the seven people who lost jobs in LANG's San Gabriel Valley group, I'm told the Los Angeles Daily News cut a position in its circulation department, and three or more newsroom staffers at the Long Beach Press-Telegram were laid off. I believe the PT layoffs are part of a consolidation plan announced in April, but I'm still awaiting details.

Dakota to the Daily News

Dakota Smith, the editor at Curbed LA, has taken a job as general assignment reporter at the Los Angeles Daily News. Here's the announcement (via LA Observed).

Painter ties for first

The Associated Press Sports Editors awarded Daily News sports writer Jill Painter a first place prize for column writing.

Bloomberg hires for Daily News reporter for Capitol beat

James Nash, who worked for the LA Daily News before heading to the Columbus Dispatch to cover the Ohio statehouse, will be the Capitol reporter in Sacramento for Bloomberg News. Nash has also done stints at the LA Business Journal and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside.

Daily News's Anderson leaves the county beat

Troy Anderson is leaving his job as county reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News and LANG chain. He plans to freelance for magazines. LA Observed has his note to staff here.

LANG likes Facebook, readers not so sure (updated)

Back in October, San Bernardino Sun editor Frank Pine sent around a memo saying the nine papers that make up the Los Angeles Newspaper Group chain would be dropping their Topix commenting system for one that interfaces with Facebook accounts. One of the primary reasons for the change was to chase off trolls, who, shielded by anonymity, often veered in racist invective and personal attack - even when stories had nothing to do with race or a particular person.

The new system requires readers to be logged into Facebook and comments are by default linked to the person's page. This transparency (Facebook's privacy critics might laugh at the word) is supposed to create an environment where comments follow a socially correct etiquette, the argument goes.

The changeover happened on Friday, Dec. 3, with all nine papers publishing an online story describing the system and soliciting feedback. So far, most of the responses have been negative, with readers decrying the loss of anonymity, which they say allows for more honest viewpoints, and criticizing the papers for putting "civility" ahead of free and open debate.

A few readers warned that trolls would simply create fake Facebook accounts and return with the same aggressive madness. Some readers worried about their own privacy, saying they didn't like that comments were automatically posted to their Facebook pages. A few readers said they liked the new system and hoped it would make for more civil discussions.

Change always comes hard in the daily newspaper world. Take away a comic strip and you're likely to swamp every department with cranky phone calls - the kind of reaction news editors would love to come in response to, say, actual news. Still, there are interesting questions surrounding anonymous posts and the question of when an opinion become unacceptable as well as the thought of newspapers aligning themselves with Facebook's private profit machine to promote a kind of civility.

Below, I've rounded up a few of the comments that came in over the weekend.

From an unhappy reader in the Whittier Daily News:

I feel the lack of anonymity restricts the truth, people are more inclined to say what they think when they're not being monitored by a moderator. Sure most of the remarks were rude and bigoted, but some stated hardcore facts and relevance to the post.

A dubious Pasadena Star-News reader:

The anonymous comments were the best part of this paper. 

Compared to the Glendale News Press which requires comments to be approved, Star News had a lively conversation.

1. Why do conversations about the news need to be "civil?"

2. Thanks for defining civility for us all.

Good luck with this.

 An aggressive rejection in the LA Daily News:

I will never participate in your comments again. "Civil" means repression in this context and I will stop reading your FUCKING SWILL. 

 The San Bernardino Sun had a few positive comments, like this one:

I think the new Facebook-based comment feature for The Sun, Daily Facts, and Daily Bulletin is great. The public comment feature on too many online news outlets have been overrun by immature, offensive, and asinine comments from users protected by anonymity.

One Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reader sees a conspiracy:

The Daily Bulletin sold out! This is just a move to protect corrupt politicians and their Shady developer Godfathers. Nothing is worse than when they steal from the tax payers, name libraries after themselves and then have to hear the negative comments of the victimized public. Although alot of mud slinging whent on in the old style of posting, at least it was an open public forum that people could use to express their true sentiments and beliefes , good or bad. This new method of traceable commenting and a lack of true public input will only mean that the cancer of corruption will choke up the wheels of justice and crush the common citizen. Good luck to us all.

Political consultant Joe Cerrell dead at 75

Longtime Democratic political consultant Joe Cerrell, a former adviser to President Kennedy and fixture in California politics, has died. He was 75.

Here's the press release from Hal Dash, CEO of Cerrell Associates:

“We are deeply saddened to announce that our company co-founder, mentor, political legend and friend Joe Cerrell passed away this morning in Camarillo following a brief bout with pneumonia.  His family was at his side to say goodbye.

Joe was a larger-than-life figure in California politics and public affairs for the past half century, beginning as a USC college Democrat and building a career in which he was an advisor to presidents, governors and political figures at all levels.  His legacy as a counselor, confidant, and close friend to thousands of people in politics, the business community, as well as in the public relations and non-profit arenas, especially the Italian-American community in Los Angeles, will not be forgotten.

Along with his beloved wife Lee, Joe built Cerrell Associates into one of the most respected and successful public affairs and political consulting firms in the nation.

Today, we celebrate this great icon of California and national politics, his life and many accomplishments, even as we mourn his passing.

 Rick Orlov at the LA Daily News has an obit here.

LANG inches up

The newspapers in LANG saw circulation rise slightly, according to the LA Daily News. Sunday circulation rose 1 percent for the nine papers, to 428,100. It was up 3 percent on weekday, to an average of 408,200.

The story does not break out numbers for individual papers.

The Daily News, which is the largest of the nine LANG papers, did provide it's own circulation numbers. From the story:

The Los Angeles Daily News saw its Sunday circulation increase nearly 3.9 percent to 97,000 during the six months that ended Sept. 30, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to figures released Monday. 

The same report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations recorded a 0.14 percent increase in the paper's average daily circulation to 89,093.

Your Daily News columnists

LA Observed has posted the new columnist lineup for the Daily News of Los Angeles. The link is broken, so I'm quoting LAO's post:

Former editorial writer and reporter Kerry Cavanaugh returns from a nine-month fellowship at Columbia University to take over a new Tuesday front page column spot. "Cavanaugh has always sought to give voice to Valley residents. Now she plans to answer their questions about the news of the day, and find the truth amid the bureaucratic, bizarre and bewildering world of government," editor Carolina Garcia says in a front-page note that ran Sunday.

Also, Al Martinez bumps up to the front page two days a week — Mondays and Fridays — and Doug McIntyre stays on Sundays and Wednesdays. Editorial page editor Mariel Garza's column "examining state and regional politics and trends" will return to the Sunday opinion pages after being dark for awhile. They are "veterans with a unique and inquisitive perspective who will write about Valley issues and who will attempt to unravel complex governmental topics," says Garcia.

Four in the morning

1. The Daily News looks at dismal results of a recent USC study of local television news and asks backers what they plan to do about it. DN

2. After someone leaked his 119 words and phrases that should be banned from radio, a cranky Tribune CEO Randy Michaels met with staff to show them his thin skin. Vocalo

3. The annual "State of the Media" report is out from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. Every media sector is losing money except for cable news. Pew

4. Fox News host Glenn Beck cries even during rehearsals. Howard Kurtz

Daily News' landlord objects to bankruptcy filing

Two more objections were filed in the MediaNews Group's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. One of them comes from the Los Angeles Daily News's landlord.

From the Denver Business Journal:

Warner Gateway Partners, the Daily News’ landlord, asked the Bankruptcy Court to require proof that Los Angeles Daily News Publishing Co. can pay the lease on its building, or else to reject an effort by its parent, MediaNews, to reassign the lease to it.

The Los Angeles Daily News occupies about one-quarter of the Warner Gateway project in Woodland Hills. MediaNews Group holds a 15-year, $27.6 million lease that expires in 2022, according to the filing.

The filing says representatives of the debtor began discussing a possible lease modification in January, but never made an offer, and provided information showing that the Daily News had lost $5 million over the past two years.

Bank of New York Mellon Trust filed the other objection, asking the court to ensure its "fees and expenses" are paid.

Last week, GreenCo filed the first objection in the case. The company says it is owed at least $8.4 million for an option it has held since 1998 to buy all of the Daily News' assets.

Avoiding the "B" word

The news of MediaNews Group's pending bankruptcy hit with a whimper inside many of the group's own newspapers. Most of the MediaNews stories I scanned yesterday used vague headlines, eschewed analysis or expert opinion of any kind, and downplayed the word "bankruptcy." They also relied on a single source for their information, a press release from MediaNews chairman Dean Singleton, to describe the deal.

The Denver Post, for example, ran the headline "Pact lets Post owner cut debt." The story didn't mention bankruptcy until the third paragraph. The Salt Lake Tribune dug deep into the word jar to keep "bankruptcy" out of the headline: "Tribune owner's holding company agrees to 'prepackaged' financial restructuring." That headline screams, "Don't read me!"

The San Jose Mercury News also played the story small, as the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club observed:

The Mercury News ran the news that its parent company was about to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings on the bottom of the business page today. The headline, "Mercury News parent swaps debt for equity," was the smallest headline for a news story on the page, and it didn't mention the word bankruptcy. The first two paragraphs don't use the B word either. One line before the jump, the word "bankruptcy" can be found. In a letter to employees, CEO Dean Singleton said the "financial restructuring is a non event for readers and advertisers."

The Los Angeles Daily News, which ran a story written by the Torrance Daily Breeze, also used the "...parent swaps debt for equity" headline construction.

In the short term, the bankruptcy probably won't be noticed by readers, advertisers or newsrooms - and not just because of how the story was played. However, any time a business convinces lenders to take a $765 million hit the lenders will demand something in return. Now that the lenders own a stake in the newspaper chain, what kind of profit margins will they demand? Do they want to see MediaNews grow? Are they happy to be in the newspaper business? Or would they rather see the chain broken up and sold off? Time - and I hope some of these very same newspapers - will tell.

Daily News is hiring

The Los Angeles Daily News is looking for an online editor to replace Ryan Garfat, who is leaving to work for a new ESPN website. Daily News editor Carolina Garcia sent the job listing to LA Observed:

The ideal candidate will have at least five (5) years experience in online media and two (2) years in a management role. This person should be a visionary leader who can work in a fast-paced breaking news environment juggling long-term projects and day-to-day coverage.

The rest of the job description is here.

King me

Los Angeles Daily News hockey writer Rich Hammond has taken a job as a columnist for the Los Angeles Kings. His work will appear on the team's official website.

Hammond spent 10 years at the Daily News and wrote the paper's "Inside The Kings" blog. He did stints at the Orange County Register and Torrance Daily Breeze as well.

Here's Hammond's quote from the team's announcement:

"I’m grateful to the Daily News for allowing me to develop my passion for covering hockey, and I’m excited about the opportunity to bring even better, more comprehensive coverage to Kings fans while maintaining the same journalistic standards."

Four today

1. Journalism critics don't always know what they're talking about. Etaoin Shrdlu

2. Journalism critics don't always know what they're talking about. Dan Gilmor

3. More Congressional hearings on the state of the newspaper industry. Editor and Publisher

4. Cock block: To curb cockfighting and noise problems, the Los Angeles City Council limits residents to one rooster per property. LADN

Comings and Goings (and Scares)

The Los Angeles Daily News has hired sports writer Jon Gold to takeover the UCLA beat at the newspaper. He replaces Brian Dohn, who left the paper in August for New Jersey. Word is that the Daily News put off hiring a replacement for Dodgers writer Tony Jackson, who was laid off in May.

Speaking of the Daily News, the paper's offices were evacuated today because of a bomb scare. An inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center said claimed he'd hidden explosive around the building.

The Pasadena Star-News newsroom is down a reporter. Robert Hong, who covered cities and cops for the paper, resigned last week to travel in Europe. The paper has yet to hire a replacement.

Both the Star-News and Daily News are part of Dean Singleton's Los Angeles Newspaper Group.

Animal victims of the Station fire

Dramatic shot from Gene Blevins of the LA Daily News of two horses singed in the Station Fire. A larger version is here.

New publisher at the Daily News

The Los Angeles Newspaper Group today named Jack Klunder, former president of the Los Angeles Times, as publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News.

Klunder left LANG in 2005 to head up the circulation department for the Times, where he'd worked before. Late last month, Times publisher Eddie Hartenstein announced Klunder was leaving for points unknown. Now we know.

This is the second new publisher for the LANG chain in as many days.

From the Daily News:

The appointment, which takes effect Aug. 10, marks Klunder's return to the nine-paper Los Angeles Newspaper Group (LANG), where he served as vice president of circulation from 1999 to 2005.

"Jack's understanding of our market and his impressive track record make him ideally suited to run the Daily News," said Fred Hamilton, LANG's chief executive officer.

Klunder was the Times' executive vice president of circulation and distribution from 2005 until earlier this year, and was responsible for all circulation, advertising and newspaper operations while serving as Times president in 2008. He'd previously spent 20 years in various management positions at the Times, from 1976 to 1996.

Before joining LANG for the first time, Klunder was a founding partner of Equant Marketing Group, which established an inbound/outbound call center in Denver and generated $12 million in revenues within two years.

Klunder received a business management degree from Pepperdine University and a graduate degree from UCLA's Anderson School of Management.

Klunder is married to Dee Dee and has four daughters.