February 26, 2009 News

Read this LA Times memo (courtesy of LA Observed) about the new structure for covering business and entertainment, which says in part

...we are establishing a new department that will be headed by Sallie Hofmeister, who is leaving her post as business editor for the masthead job of Assistant Managing Editor/Arts & Entertainment. She will report to Managing Editor Davan Maharaj.

Joining Sallie will be Craig Turner, who is leaving his position as weekend editor to become Arts & Entertainment Editor. Craig has spent the past seven years guiding our best enterprise efforts into our two biggest circulation days of the week, Saturday and Sunday. Sallie and Craig will oversee the merging of our entertainment reporting groups in Calendar and Business, and they will work closely with Richard Rushfield and Joseph Kapsch at latimes.com as we continue to expand our online entertainment news and information offerings.

Wonder if this means more CLEARLY NECESSARY front page stories on Britney Spears' father??


Add food section writer Amy Scattergood to the list of LA Times layoffs.

And finally, the Times has just named John Corrigan to replace Hofmeister as business editor and Mary Braswell to replace Turner as weekend editor.


Liz Smith is not exactly Helen Thomas in the overall scheme of things, but surely she is too – well, I don't know what, but SOMETHING – for this to happen (from Fishbowl LA):

Gossip columnist Liz Smith has been dropped by the New York Post after 33 years. Col Allan, Editor-in-Chief of The Post, decided against renewing Smith's contract. Smith's column had already been cut from six days a week to three…

… She will also be posting on the site wowowow.com, of which she is a co-founder.

Got a tip that LA Stage Magazine is going online only for the time being, per Editor Lee Melville.


KCRW's Sarah Spitz passes this on:

On March 16th, 2009 public radio station KCRW-Santa Monica (89.9 FM and KCRW.com) welcomes veteran entertainment industry reporter KIM MASTERS to the helm of the station’s award-winning weekly program about the business of entertainment, THE BUSINESS (Mondays at 2:30 pm Pacific time on radio; streamed live, available on-demand and as a podcast @ www.KCRW.com).

Producers are Matt Holzman and Darby Maloney – first name dot last name at kcrw.org.

New Angeles Monthly is now publishing quarterly, with the next issue probably coming out in April. Josh Lurie is still editor.

February 24, 2009 News

LA Times layoffs include Image section writer Monica Corcoran, per LA Observed.


Daily News layoffs include TV critic David Kronke, per Gary Scott's blog. LA Observed reports late Monday that remaining entertainment writer Greg Hernandez is laid off as well.


Leticia Buckley draws our attention to free-lance arts writer Debra Levine's arts Arts Meme blog.


Don't know any details about this, but apparently Alan Rich has replaced Donna Perlmutter as City Beat's classical music writer.


Publication of Vergudo Monthly magazine "has been suspended" as of the February issue. Arroyo Monthly, with editor Irene Lacher, is still in place. Both are owned by the company that publishes City Beat and Pasadena Weekly.


"Reader-friendly" and "relevant" do not, apparently, mean what they used to. The Daily News ran this note to readers on Monday.

You will notice changes in the Daily News beginning with today's edition. For starters, we have redesigned the newspaper to make it more reader-friendly. To save on newsprint costs and adjust to the current adverse economic climate, we are making the following changes to our format:

On Mondays and Tuesdays, you will find the comics, puzzles, TV grid and advice columns in the front section. Dilbert appears on A2 on Mondays. There will be no dedicated Business or Opinion page on Mondays, but both will return on Tuesday.
Wednesday through Sunday, the L.A. LIFE section returns with comics, TV and advice columns and other features. Dining coverage continues on Wednesday and health coverage moves to Thursday.

We thank you for your loyal support as we confront this troubled economy. We are committed to producing a relevant local news report that is focused on the San Fernando Valley.

Just to be an equal-opportunity grumbler, I'll mention that I'm no longer a devoted reader of the LA Times' shell-of-its-former-self LA Now blog.

On the other hand, I will say that I actually read most of what was in the February LA Times Magazine and found it pretty well done.

February 13, 2009 News

Writer John Morell announces:

LosAngelesonthecheap.com, which is a site/blog dedicated to finding inexpensive tours, tickets, hotels, restaurants, etc. that would be of interest to Southern California visitors. It's part of the CitiesontheCheap.com network, which includes several other U.S. destinations and so far we also have Montreal and Auckland, New Zealand as part of the network.

I just wanted to get the word out to the PR community that I'm looking for great deals in this area that I can publish. You can roam through the site, we did a piece on cheap CityPass tickets, great rental car deals outside of the major companies, doing Beverly Hills inexpensively, staying along the So Cal coast for under $100, that sort of thing.

John, check your in box for something from me this morning.


Masthead with updated contacts for FineArtsLA is here.


This may be old news, but here's Entertainment Today's current address and other contact info:

12021 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 398
Los Angeles, CA 90025
@entertainmenttoday.net, send to editor
213-387-2060 ext 1 phone
213-341-2225 fax


Sorry to hear about LA Stage Alliance's Director of Operations Sara Adelman and Communications Manager Darren Schroader being laid off. Here's the blog post recapping the organization's "downsizing."


Details moves into the just-shuttered Domino's New York offices. Info here.


Change in editorship at Glendale News Press and Burbank leader as

Danette Goulet, editor of the Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader for four years, announced plans [last week] to step down, citing plans to move her family to Boston and raise her 7-month-old son.

Full story here.

February 2, 2009 News

New address for Daily Breeze:

Daily Breeze

South Bay Tower

21250 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 170

Torrance, CA 90503

Thanks to the LA Times' Andrew Nystrom for clueing me in to this list of LA Times-related Twitter pages.

This via LA Observed is news from last week but didn't get into my last post.

Tim Doyle, formerly of Variety and Maria Russo, formerly of The Los Angeles Times, are the lead editors of Sharon Waxman's new Hollywood news website … A news release says the contributors to The Wrap include Kim Masters, who recently departed National Public Radio; Andrew Gumbel, the author and correspondent for British newspapers; Nicole LaPorte, a former film reporter for Variety who has just completed a book about DreamWorks; Mark Lisanti, former editor of Defamer; Johanna Neuman, who covered Washington for The Los Angeles Times and USA Today; and Peter Mehlman, a former co-executive producer of Seinfeld and leading television writer and producer.

Masthead with email addresses is here.

More from LA Observed here.

New York Post replaces the late Clive Barnes with Elisabeth Vincentelli. This from Playbill:

Elisabeth Vincentelli, the arts and entertainment editor of Time Out New York, is the new chief drama critic at The New York Post, according to Michael Riedel, the paper's theatre writer.

According to the blog she keeps (The Determined Dilettante, at blogspot.com), Vincentelli grew up in France and has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. On her blog, she comments on theatre, dance, film, music, books and more.…the arts and entertainment editor of Time Out New York, is the new chief drama critic at The New York Post, according to Michael Riedel, the paper's theatre writer.

Sorry for initally posting last time the wrong magazine title from which Bob Thomas retired. It's FORE, and the new editor/publisher is Katie Denbo.