The Long Beach Press-Telegram is eliminating sports, photo and features departments from its already skeletal newsroom. The duties will be turned over to the P-T's sister paper, the Daily Breeze in Torrance, two sources tell me. At least two sports writers, a features writer and a photographer will lose their jobs. I'm told the staffers can reapply for their positions in Torrance.
*Updated: A little more detail about the change. I'm told photo is being moved from Long Beach to the Daily Breeze and there will be one fewer photographers, and sports will likewise be moved with two fewer staffers. The P-T's features department will be eliminated, which means Al Rudis is out of a job.
In their place, the Daily Breeze plans to hire a news editor and a presentation editor and to create two new city reporter positions.
**Updated 4/30: The fog is beginning to clear on the Long Beach Press-Telegram. A story in the Long Beach Post makes clear that two people were laid off yesterday: executive city editor John Futch and day city editor Rose Fitzpatrick.
Additionally, the paper has lost its photo, sports and features departments. This will affect more people than I originally reported. There are five photographers, six sports writers and columnists, and three features department employees who will be terminated and then asked to reapply for jobs at the Daily Breeze. As reported above, there will be one fewer photographers, two fewer sports slots and, apparently, no features openings at the Breeze.
what the heck is a presentations editor???
ReplyDeleteThink form over substance. It's what a content editor isn't...
ReplyDeletehmmmm why not just coin a new term and call it an Advertising Editor
ReplyDeletethat's easy...they do presentations. continue to diminish your product, short change what readers you have left, and you will continue to lose ad revenus and subscribers as you sink further in the tar pit of your own creation. is there no one with any sense left at this group? sorry, silly question.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if the presentations editor can make the paper look pretty enough the readers won't notice that the content is gone.
ReplyDeleteA news editor? With a copy desk in San Gabriel? Makes perfect sense in LANG world.
ReplyDeletewow. demolished the entire PT. you know what is sad? years ago this used to be a destination paper. very well respected. sigh.
ReplyDeleteWhen the economy comes back, the decks will be stripped and ready for action plans maximizing the strategic opportunities of media consumers needs innovation and niches in the market.
ReplyDeleteHey 4:07 p.m., what are you smoking?
ReplyDeleteThis is probably the beginning of some renewed consolidation plan. If so, then inept managers and editors at other LANG papers could get promoted, and pass on their bad judgements and lazy editing to other papers. Of course, the presentations editor can then justify his or her position, but convincing the public that the newspapers all still practice valuable "journalism."
does this have to do wtih the purchase of the OC register? seems there is a lot going on here.
ReplyDeleteSo is the PT now a bureau to the Breeze? How can it function like a regular newspaper without a photo staff?
ReplyDeleteWow. I really want to read the job description for the "Presentations Editor."
ReplyDeleteThe fog didn't clear. You're just a bad reporter who published bad information.
ReplyDeleteSad to see that it apparently never ends. A year can go by without horrible news from LANG, but there is always more.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a corner to be cut, LANG will find it. If one cannot be found, LANG will create one. And if it can't create a corner to cut, it will butcher the entire room. If you continue to cut cut cut, you will never grow, grow, grow. No respect for employees or readers. Ever. Presentations editor my ass. Man, this is getting old.
ReplyDeletedoes this have to do with the purchase of the register? are you joking? that would mean there is a plan...there is no plan but to continue to sink into the muck. these twits can't even find a way to continue to milk the print cow until it dies, they want to shoot the cow and sell it off much quicker than they should. as far as news operations go, they suck. and, these cuts have been going on for at least four years or longer at lang. sure would like to see the revenue picture then and now. how is it working leaders?
ReplyDeleteChart the faster demise of lang with the arrival of little eddie nearly three years ago. Look at his brilliant leadership and the cast of boot lickers he surrounded himself with. Now look what is left of the business...wait, newspapers next will save them. What a group of clowns.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, lang has had plenty of time to install a group of smart folks...clear to me they don't have any to run the newspapers.
Well, after three years-plus of aggressive cost cutting and consolidation, it just goes to show there must have been one helluva lot of dead wood throughout Los Angeles Newspaper Group. Pretty much every body.
ReplyDeleteSad to hear but not surprised it came down to this. MNG/LANG could care less for the people at the PT. This was evident from day one of their take over.
ReplyDeleteSorry guys. Nothing personal. All for the sake of making a profit...
All the Southern CA papers could be added together (including the horrific rag in San Diego) and you wouldn't come up with a staff that rivaled the once-proud LA Times of a quarter century ago. If you work for a newspaper in Southern CA, get out before they take you out. No commitment to providing a good product at ANY newspapers in the region.
ReplyDeletenot that there wasn't any dead wood at mng/lang, but most of the dead were/are still running the place...or acting like they are. and, the big losers other than the employees are the readers who didn't get much and now get even less, if that is even possible.
ReplyDeleteStill humorus to me that you could post the world has ended and no comments. however, anything regarding lang is always commented on hard and heavy. they really pissed and continue to piss a number of people off. great legacy.
Typical, predictable bitter comments.
ReplyDeleteHi, my name is Lean Dean and thanks for putting more $ in my pocket PT!
ReplyDelete"Presentation editor" is a five dollar phrase for "lead designer." Person in charge of typography, design elements, use of photos and graphics... the "look and feel" of the paper. Not the ads, just the editorial side.
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Union!
ReplyDeleteWhat did you expect in lieu of "bitter comments"?? Praises? What a d!ck!
ReplyDeleteI'm not bitter, just a bit tangy.
ReplyDeleteIf you work there, have ever worked there, know someone who works there, it would be hard not to dislike the so called leaders of the organization. Not a backbone in one of them.
ReplyDeleteWill the last employee leaving the P-T newsroom please turn out the lights, for good.
ReplyDeleteThis shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. The newspaper industry in the U.S. has been dying in full view of everybody since the end of World War II. Many -- including myself -- have been speaking and writing about it for decades. Recently in my 100th Common Cents column http://bit.ly/isY42b and "Circling The Drain" in the October 2009 edition of The Digital Journalist http://bit.ly/cszl01
ReplyDelete--Mark Loundy
Twitter: @MarkLoundy
These consolidations will enable the Press-Telegram and Daily Breeze to better serve readers through operational efficiencies and a renewed commitment to local news.
ReplyDeleteMark at 9:07, I disagree dying since WW2...record revenue years till about 1990 depending on which region of the country you were in. It all started going south in the early 1990's at the start of that recession. It recovered slightly and then the new technology killed the beast. Along with the lack of innovation and forward thinking required to compete.
ReplyDeleteSo who is staying and who is going? any word?
ReplyDeleteDo you love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life
ReplyDeleteis made of
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