Thursday, September 13, 2007

September 13, 2007 News



LA Observed gets it… more plain vanilla from the LA Newspaper Group as the Daily News, Daily Breeze and Long Beach Press Telegram are planning to share NEWS content pages now (not just in their features sections). Read between the lines in this announcement naming Judi Erickson as city editor. The memo reads, "She succeeds Barbara Jones who is coordinating content with our sister MediaNews papers and will play a key content role in the efforts to develop and put together the common pages we'll soon be producing with the Breeze and Long Beach."


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As I speculated a few weeks ago, Enid Portuquez has left LA.com, but instead of joining Image, as I'd heard, she's an online producer for the calendarlive site focusing on shopping and possibly contributing to the newpaper as well.


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Am I the only one who's wondering why the LA Times gave Sandy Banks another opportunity to be a columnist? She's in the California section this time, rather than in what was called View where she was the last time around. Check this out – in the newspaper edition and on the website "Discussion" section for her Tuesday column about life span, it says, "Sandy wants readers to share their stories about what you are doing to buck the law of average and extend your life. Power walking? Praying? Eating broccoli? Share your thoughts."

Are they kidding??? Why is this in the California section, among other problems? Hope no one can hear me rolling my eyes.


Maybe David Lauter will have an answer in October when he becomes California editor, responsible for news coverage of the state, according to LA Observed.


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Carly Mayberry is now the Hollywood Reporter's film reporter covering Paramount and DreamWorks. (See my earlier report below about Leslie Simmons, who's covering Fox and Sony.)