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.

Update on layoffs in the San Gabriel Valley

Here's an update on the layoffs at the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group: Seven people total lost their jobs: two of them were on the business side, five from the newsroom. The affected newsroom employees are Hector Gonzalez, Eric Reed, Karen Lee, Coye Sloan and Steve Wytucki.

Add: Gonzalez was the city editor at the Pasadena Star-News, one of the three papers in the SGVN chain. His position will not be filled. Metro Editor Frank Girardot will continue as the primary editor for the paper.

Bill Bell, editor and soul of the Whittier Daily News, is dead

Bill Bell, former editor and columnist at the Whittier Daily News, has died of complications from a stroke. He was 77 years old.

Whittier Daily News editor Tim Traeger has the obituary:

Bell cut his journalistic teeth in hardscrabble and hard-drinking newsrooms like the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. 

He covered the Watts Riots in 1965, the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 and the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake. One of his biggest stories was the 1987 Whittier Narrows Earthquake, which leveled buildings in Uptown and caused millions of dollars in damages.
-snip- 

After his stint at the Tribune, Bell was hired as editor of the Victor Valley Daily Press in 1975 and he moved his burgeoning family to Apple Valley. When that paper was sold in 1979, Bell worked for various weekly publications in Hesperia and Apple Valley before being hired as editor of the Whittier Daily News in 1982. 

For Bell, it was both a homecoming and a salvation. He battled alcoholism and often credited Whittier with saving his life. He gave up alcohol for good upon the birth of his first grandchild, Sarah, in 1984.

Employee remembrances here and here.

Baeder steps down at SGVN

Ben Baeder has stepped down as deputy managing editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, which includes, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News. Baeder decided to leave the paper shortly after last month's layoffs at the Tribune were announced. His final day is today.

Baeder took the editing job in May, 2008 after a hiatus from newspapers. He'd been a reporter at the Tribune before that. I'm told he's leaving the newspaper profession once again.

Rebecca Kimitch, a political reporter at the Tribune, is slated to take over some of Baeder's editing duties.

Small gains in the SGV

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Whittier Daily News reported small circulation gains in the last six months, according to the latest ABC numbers. The Tribune, which didn't report on last year's circulation losses, carried a story yesterday about the increases:

[The] Whittier Daily News posted a total paid daily circulation of 14,129 in March, up 3.5 percent from 13,645 a year earlier, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune's daily circulation rose 0.5 percent to 36,041 compared with 35,867 in March of last year.

The third paper in the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, the Pasadena Star-News, saw circulation slip 0.3 percent to 25,410.

Comings and goings

*Downtown News reporter Anna Scott has taken a job with the Los Angeles Daily Journal. She's set to start there March 1.

*Frank Girardot, metro editor for the three-paper San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, will take over as editor of the Pasadena Star-News. Here's part of the memo:

This is a homecoming for Frank. He worked at the Star-News for many years in the 1990s, so he knows the community well. He's just the man we need in Pasadena to be the public face of the Star-News and ensure the community regards the Star-News as its indispensable source of local news. City Editor Hector Gonzalez and the entire editorial staff of the Star-News will report to Frank.

*San Gabriel Valley Tribune reporter Rebecca Kimitch was promoted to political editor for the paper.

*Pasadena Star-News reporter Alfred Lee has accepted a job with the Los Angeles Business Journal.

MediaNews goes to bankruptcy court

MediaNews Group today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company, which publishes 54 daily newspapers in the U.S., including nine in Southern California, announced its intention to file a "prepackaged" bankruptcy last week.

Four today

1. Steve Lambert at the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group is merely asking for suggestions; the Miami Herald is asking readers for donations. NBC Miami

2. Dan Kennedy defends journalists' use of anonymous sources (and I agree with him). The Guardian

3. Layoffs at the New Republic. Politico

4. Edmund Andrews, the New York Times economics reporter who wrote about his mortgage problems, has taken a buyout from the paper (but not so he can make his mortgage, he says). NYO

SGVN reaches out to readers

Steve Lambert, editor and publisher of the three newspapers in the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, wrote a column that asks readers to send in suggestions for how to improve the newspapers and make them more useful to subscribers. From the column:

What would you change about your newspaper? About our Web site?

What do you like? What would you add?

Is there a topic you would like us to delve into, or a feature you would like us to include?

In simplest terms, what can we do to become a more indispensable part of your lives?

In the coming weeks, we'll take that information and make it part of our strategic planning process - again to better align us with your expectations.

Don't know if this is related, but some newsroom reporters have been summoned to SGVN headquarters in West Covina for training.

Four in the morning

1. Remember when Dean Singleton said that it no longer mattered "whether your [news] desk is down the hall or around the world"? Well, more and more newspaper owners find themselves in agreement as they make plans to outsource their news desk functions. Alan Mutter

2. The New York Times plans to lay off as many as 26 editorial employees in the coming days to reach its goal of eliminating 100 positions - 76 newsroom staffers agreed to take buyouts. NY Post

3. The metro editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group reviews the "Climategate" controversy and concludes that global warming is a hoax. SGV Tribune *(McClatchy has a primer on "Climategate" here.)

4. Time magazine and CNNMoney "de-clutter" their web pages to make room for bigger ads and cross promotion: "Time.com is also pushing its content partners like Huffington Post, AOL, and others in a prominent box of current headlines in the right rail of the page." min online

A new kind of deadline

The folks at the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group are serious about their time cards. Here's a memo sent yesterday to editorial employees:

Time cards are due tomorrow at 5:00 pm. If I do not receive your time cards, you will receive written warning in your files and disciplinary action up to and including termination will begin.

Brother, can you spare some sick time?

With flu season here and fears the H1N1 strain will make it worse than usual, the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group has asked employees to donate vacation time to anyone who has burned through his or her sick days. Here's part of the memo:

Employees may donate accrued vacation time for the benefit of a fellow employee who is not covered under the company's sick time benefit or for a fellow employee who had already exhausted all of his/her sick time. Please contact Human Resources for further details on this program.

The charitable urge might be dampened a bit by the fact that the parent company, LANG, has spent the last year cutting employee vacation benefits to save money. In April, management instituted a six-month vacation freeze, meaning no one could accrue additional time off. With the freeze still on, the company ordered employees to use a week's worth of vacation to further draw down accounts.

Bankruptcy behind the Orange Curtain

The parent company of the Orange County Register filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, adding more uncertainty to the future of Southern California's newspapers.

By filing for bankruptcy, Freedom Communications hopes to cast off about $445 million in crushing debt. As a result, Freedom's founding family, the Hoiles, will turn over operations of the company's 33 dailies, 70 weeklies and eight television stations to a board chosen by its lenders.

From the LAT (which is owned by the bankrupt Tribune Co.):

Under the plan, Freedom's lenders would forgive $445 million of debt for the company. That would leave Freedom with $325 million in debt. ...

The Register, which in the 1980s and 1990s fended off a determined effort by The Times to invade Orange County, saw its circulation fall by a third in the new millennium, dropping from more than 363,500 in 2000 to about 231,000 this year.

The Register intends to continue publishing throughout the bankruptcy proceedings. Presumably this includes normal press operations - Dean Singleton's three San Gabriel Valley newspapers are now printed at the Register's printing plant.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that the Register would file for bankruptcy this week.

Four in the morning

1. Out of work? The San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group (Pasadena Star-News, SGV Tribune, Whittier Daily News) wants your story for a new feature called "faces of the recession." - "Our goal is try to help you get back on your feet again in the midst of a tough recession." Star-News

2. The New York Times reports on National Public Radio's efforts to add more news content to its website, which has NPR affiliates - of which KCRW is one - worried that listeners and resources will be drawn away from local stations. NYT

3. Ron Kaye at OurLA.org has obtained pension records for the Los Angeles police and fire departments and listed the 286 highest earners - all pulling in over $100,000 a year. OurLA.org

4. Newspaper company A.H. Belo, whose publications include the Press-Enterprise in Riverside and Dallas Morning News, posted a $7.1 million loss in the second quarter of the year. Stock prices are up slightly, however. Dallas Morning News

Changes at SGVN

The San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group - the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News - has fused together its weeklies and special section staffs to create what is called "custom publications" and promoted Pia Orense to oversee them. Here's the memo:

I am pleased to announce the promotion of Pia Orense to editor of custom publications for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. As part of this move, we are combining the staffs of our weeklies and special sections into a single unit that will be responsible for all non-core and internet products. Over the course of the next several months, Pia will lead an effort to determine how best that unit can operate to produce our existing publications and create opportunities to launch others. She will also work closely with our ICPG unit in San Bernardino.

Please join me in congratulating Pia on her new role.

Four in the evening

1. Also still adjusting to the Internet: politics. Matt Bai

2. Overhead in the Newsroom of the day: Reporter: “Just cause somebody got gunned down doesn’t mean his story is all that compelling.” OITN

3. More LANG moves, this time in the San Gabriel Valley. From LA Observed: Steve Lambert is the new Editor and Publisher of the San Gabriel Valley newspaper Group and Steve Hunt is promoted from managing editor to senior editor. LAO

4. News is going mobile. Recovering Journalist

LANG freezes employee vacation time*

After being forced to take a week's worth of unpaid leave, LANG employees will now lose out on some of their paid vacation. According to a memo from Inland Division Publisher Fred Hamilton, employees will no longer accrue vacation time starting April 5. The suspension will last through July 4.

Here's the Hamilton memo:

Colleagues,

Tomorrow and for some later today, along with your paycheck, you'll be receiving a letter about another step our newspapers are taking to tackle the difficult economic challenges that we are facing.

In short, we'll be suspending accrual of employee vacation time from April 5, 2009 through July 4, 2009. The letter will go into specifics and our human resource VP Louise Kopitch is available to answer your questions.

I want to let you know that I truly appreciate all the additional sacrifices and hard work that all employees have made during these unprecedented times.

Fred Hamilton
Publisher

An almost identical memo went out to the other LANG newspapers.

The union representing workers at the Daily News and Press-Telegram says the freeze won't apply to its members.

*Update: Jim Janiga, LANG's head of human resources, sent out a memo (read it here) that provides a general sense of how much vacation time will be lost. (via LA Observed)

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.

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.

Web traffic up at SGVN

Frank Pine, senior editor at SGVN, which consists of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News, sent out a memo today praising the three newsrooms for their good work in 2008 and noting a rise in Web traffic.

From the memo:

Everyone deserves credit for a year of strong online growth. In 2008, combined traffic to all three SGVN Web sites was up by more than 30 percent. Tribune's Web site was up more than 40 percent (up 122 percent in December over last December) year over year. Pasadena and Whittier also had respectable jumps in traffic. The trend for all three sites is increasing gains: In the early part of 2008, growth was sluggish, picking up in the middle of the year, and accelerating significantly at the end of the year.

Online standouts include Fred Robledo, who writes our most popular blog. Miguel Melendez, who took over the Pasadena preps blog in August, is also racking up impressive numbers. Frank Girardot's CrimeScene and Leftovers from City Hall (Jennifer McLain and Tania Chatila) are also driving significant traffic. Photo galleries continue to be a major draw with readers, consistently ranking at the top of our "most popular pages" stats.

SGVN is part of LANG's Inland Division. LANG is part of Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group.