EXCELLENT ARTS PROMOTION OFFERED BY FINEARTSLA.COM
Christian Chensvold's FineArtsLA web site inaugurates "Forty Unders," which he describes as "a marketing program aimed at developing younger audiences." If the arts organizations you handle are looking for promotion in return for tickets, contact Christian (Christian@fineartsla.com). He posts about the performances and offers a ticket giveaway to site readers, who must be 40 and under to qualify for the tickets. Among the participants so far are Jacaranda, LA Ballet, Musica Angelica, Pacific Serenades and Dilijan Chamber Music Series. BACK AT CITY BEAT I notice that Natalie Nichols is back at City Beat, listed in the masthead as Acting Arts Editor. THE PUBLICIST ATE MY HOMEWORK "Miscommunication"??? Does anyone else actually believe that? Apparently an AP reporter bought it. NEW YORK (AP) -- Ringo Starr is known for being the amiable Beatle, but the rock star showed his tough side Tuesday when he walked off the set of "Live With Regis and Kelly" rather than cut short one of his songs.
Starr, who is promoting his new album, "Liverpool 8," planned to perform the title song with fellow rocker Dave Stewart. However, due to miscommunication between his publicist, Elizabeth Freund, and the musical director, Starr didn't realize the performance had to be 2 1/2 minutes or less, Freund told The Associated Press.
When told Tuesday morning that the performance had to be shortened, Freund said Starr tried to cut about a minute of the song's 4 minute, 15 second length, down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. However, according to Freund, producer Michael Gellman said it had to be less than 3 minutes.
"We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay," Freund said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Ringo left saying, 'God bless and goodbye. We still love Regis.' "
COMING AND GOING
Michael Mullen promises he is now Guide editor permanently at Los Angeles Magazine, replacing Sarah D. Wilson, who came and went pretty quickly. CHANGES AT OC REGISTER Listings maven Cynthia Furey has departed (to free lance, I believe), replaced by Matthew Ralston, who picks the featured events that run in the paper in the categories of classical and pop music, family events, visual arts, theater, nightlife and dance. He says he pulls mainly from the Z-Events online listings for what he uses in the newspaper and highly recommends submitting to that (although he's ok with getting emails, too). Although none of the writers at any of the papers involved seem to get this, I've discovered that if you submit events to LA.com (Daily News, Daily Breeze, Pasadena Star News, Long Beach Press Telegram, etc.), they'll show up in the OC Register's counterpart, SqueezeOC.com, and vice versa. So don't waste your time doing double duty. "ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT DIRECTOR" NAMED AT AP LOS ANGELES Daniel Becker has been promoted from photo editor to "director of entertainment content" at Associated Press in the LA bureau. According to a news release, "In his new position, he will oversee all print and broadcast entertainment coverage, including articles, videos, photos, audio and other multimedia." Including Britney. IS THIS GOOD NEWS OR BAD NEWS? A Pasadena Star News story reports on "Improvements in Your Local Newspaper," including that "The LA.COM section will now appear Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. In February, we will replace the LA.COM section with a new and more local weekender section appearing on those three days." Also, according to sources, Features Editor Catherine Gaugh has moved offices from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin back to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune in West Covina. TRYING TO DECIDE FOR WHOM THIS IS BAD NEWS Here's the New York Times' story from Sunday on LA Times Editor James O'Shea's firing by Publisher David Hillier. LA Observed has additional information. Read O'Shea's remarks yesterday to the newsroom here.
IN OTHER LA TIMES NEWS… The Times' Readers Representative blog enlightens us on new assignments for three reporters: Ron Lin (Health Care), Dan Weikel (Regional Air Transportation) and Rich Connell (Multimedia/Government). In the Calendar section, Sari Heifetz takes over for Deborah Stokol handling classical music listings. HEATHER CASE MOVES TO TV GUIDE NETWORK Heather Case, previously with the now-defunct Charlia Tuna Show at KBIG (now known as 104.3 My FM – a mouthful, to say the least), is now talent booker for "Hollywood 411" at the TV Guide Network. Her new contact info:Heather Case, Talent BookerTV Guide Network1800 N. Highland Ave., 6th FloorLos Angeles, CA 90028323-817-4806heather.case@tvguide.com DEFINE "ELSEWHERE" The New Yorker has a terrific new (relatively) blog called "Goings On" which is described as being about "Cultural happenings in New York and elsewhere, both online and off."
GINNY CHIEN TURNS UP AT LA TIMES MAGAZINE Ginny Chien, late of Variety and Angeleno, joins the LA Times magazine as style editor. More magazine staffers are named in a memo on the Times' Readers Representatibe blog here. NEW CALENDAR EDITOR AT LA PARENT Thanks so much to Lucy Pollak (Lucy Pollak Public Relations) for passing along this note from new LA Parent Calendar Editor Michael Berick (Michael.berick@parenthood.com): I am gathering up listings for the February issue. I am looking for family-friendly plays that will be running (whether opening or on-going) during February. The magazine covers LA county, Orange County, Ventura County, The Valleys: San Fernando, San Gabriel, Conejo, Santa Clarita and Big Bear. The plays should be appropriate for Middle School/Junior High students or younger. The other information I need is:The name of the event,The location and venue addressThe ticket cost and how to get ticketsThe phone numberThe appropriate age rangeAnd a short description of the event. My deadline is the end of December HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE! THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF THE PR MEDIA MOVES BLOG!
MICHAEL BURR LEAVES HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
What a shame – Michael is leaving the Hollywood Reporter (today's his last day) after running the "About Town" page for more years than I can remember. He reports that his replacement is Michelle Grabicki, who can be reached at mgrabicki@hollywoodreporter.com. Good luck, Michael – will miss you! MUSICAL CHAIRS AT THE LA TIMES LA Observed has the LA Times' latest internal memo announcing a couple of staffing changes, including Food Editor Leslie Brenner moving to edit the Times magazine (can't remember what they're calling it this month), while Deputy Features Editor Michalene Busico will "continue to guide" Food in the meantime "with the able assistance of Susan La Tempa and Betty Hallock," says the memo. Add this from Fishbowl L.A. Sherry Stern is also moving to the magazine, as acting managing editor, but will remain as a deputy editor of Features, so that uninspired dreariness can continue throughout the entire paper, with no interruptions.
With regard to that comment, why is the Calendar section constantly filled with unrelated-to-L.A. features by wire service writers? I ask you, is there not enough to cover in this city? By way of an answer to my own question, did you happen to see that lovely story on the Harmony Project, "a nonprofit group in Los Angeles that offers extensive classical musical training to 500 people ages 6 to 18 from disadvantaged families"? It was terrific! Where did it appear? No, not in Calendar. It was in the California section, which is fine -- but see my point in the first sentence of this paragraph. To conclude my rant about the Times, I'll just say that its Editorial Staff page, which says "Last update: July 31, 2007," needs someone's attention RIGHT AWAY. NEWS FROM LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE LA Observed reports that Editor Kit Rachlis is taking a four-month "book leave" starting January 2, and also that LA Times writer Richard E. Meyer is joining the magazine as senior editor. UPDATE TO METROMIX INFO FROM EARLIER THIS WEEK Apparently the Times/Tribune is planning to publish a print version of Metromix along with its web site. Fishbowl L.A. has an interview with its new art director. GOOD READ: INTERVIEW WITH LAIST EDITOR ZACH BEHRENS… … here.
CITY BEAT'S REBECCA EPSTEIN MOVES TO METROMIX…
… with this parting note: It is with a certain amount of sadness that I announce my departure from L.A. CityBeat. I have accepted a position with Metromix L.A., a joint online and print endeavor between the Tribune Company and L.A. Times devoted to local arts and entertainment events for the 18-34 demo.
The new CityBeat arts editor has not yet been named. In the interim, pitches for arts features should be directed to Steve Appleford, Editor, editor@lacitybeat.com.
Pitches for film reviews should be directed to Andy Klein, Film Editor, andyk@lacitybeat.com.
Pitches for theater reviews should be directed to Don Shirley, Theater Critic, dons@lacitybeat.com.
Submissions for calendar listings and “7 Days in L.A.” should be directed to Alfred Lee, Calendar Editor, calendar@lacitybeat.com.
Pitches for the news section should be directed to Alan Mittelstaedt, News Editor, alanm@lacitybeat.com.
As one of the founding editorial members of CityBeat, it has been my great honor to be a part of such a smart and lively publication all these years. And it was my great pleasure to meet each of you, if only through email. Thank you for all the good work that you do, and for supporting this little paper that could. I wish every one of you a joyous holiday and a brilliant new year.
Her last day was Friday.
LINDA IMMEDIATO NOW AT ANGELENO
Noticed her name in the December masthead as deputy editor. She left LA Weekly in late October.
EDITORIAL CHANGES AT BUSINESS WEEK They're detailed in a memo featured on UNC's journalism weblog here. More from WWD.com here. LATIMES.COM NEWS LA Observed reports that LATimes.com Weekend Editor is Bettie Rinehart, who will – as of January 24 -- "help to create a new kind of latimes.com on the weekends by focusing on special features and projects and also guiding our weekend staff when news breaks to get us strongly and quickly off the ground," according to the memo from LATimes.com Executive Editor Meredith Artley, which LA Observed has in full. Read it for additional info about Tony Pierce's and Veronique de Turenne's new roles there. WHO DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING? LA Observed quotes from an interesting piece on a Long Beach-based blog called TheDistrictWeekly.com about how the Press Telegram is losing its local identity due to consolidation of the Daily News-Daily Breeze-Pasadena Star News, et al group of papers. Sounds like Daily Breeze Editor Phillip Sanfield could use some good PR counsel. Read LA Observed's report here, and the original DistrictWeekly story here. 2007 ROUNDUP OF MEDIA GAFFES ON REGRET THE ERROR Check out RegretTheError.com's "The Year in Media Errors and Corrections" for a good read. NEW USA TODAY MAGAZINE On March 7, USA Today launches Open Air, a quarterly "active lifestyle magazine" that will be distributed in the newspaper's Friday edition. Click here for more details and a link to the 2008 editorial calendar.
ZACH BEHRENS PROMOTED TO LAIST EDITOR
He was, of course, already co-editor. Congratulations!DAILY BRUIN UPDATESThanks to Lucy Pollak for passing this along… as of December 14, Suzy Evans is the new Theater/Arts Editor for the Daily Bruin's winter and spring quarters, taking the place of Laura Picklesimer. sevans@media.ucla.edu.Daily Bruin Music Editor remains Alex LaRue (alarue@media.ucla.edu)The Bruin will not be publishing for the next three weeks of winter break.LA TIMES RE-ESTABLISHES REGIONAL BUREAUSLA Observed has the memo about the LA Times re-establishing several regional bureaus, but basically John Mitchell is heading "South county," Jennifer Oldham is running the Valley, and Hector Beccera is in charge of "East county." Take the link for more info.THE PLACE VISITORS GUIDE SEEKS EVENT INFO AND PHOTOSFrom Lisa Fernandez, account manager:As you may know, The Place - Southern California's Visitor Guides - publishes a monthly Special Events Calendar and Theatre Openings editorial in each of our three editions. It's an easy way for us to keep our visitors on the pulse of what's going on in our area & gives you the opportunity to brag a little about the great things going on over there.
So...if you have a Los Angeles, Orange County or San Diego event or performance you would like us to highlight, please send us your press releases and all other pertinent information. Feel free to send such information via email or standard mail. We'd love to hear from you.
And it isn't even tough to do so. We have room for approximately 6 - 8 items and about 6 - 8 photos each in LA, OC and SD edition. For publication purposes, all photos must be at 300dpi, and we request such images be sent electronically as JPEGs. We make no guarantee to include your event, but will make every possible effort to do so.
Deadline for the monthly magazine is the 5th of the prior month. Submit to editorial@visittheplace.com.Thanks very much to LAInc's Carol Martinez for alerting us to this.
LA PARENT CALENDAR EDITOR BRENDA REES MOVES ON
From Brenda…
Today is my last day as calendar editor for LA Parent Magazine. It's been a great pleasure to work with all of you these past four years. Please keep my name on your media lists as I do freelance for other local publications -- including the LA Times -- so I like to know what's going on! Please update your lists with this address for me: Brenda@brendarees.com
The L.A. Parent office operator says to send calendar items to editor Carolyn Graham (carolyn.graham@parenthood.com) for now. LA TIMES NETS LAIST EDITOR TONY PIERCE He'll move in a few weeks to run the Times' blogs. Good interview with him about it all HERE. NEED SOME EXTRA HELP FROM A LONG-TIME PUBLICIST? One of this blog's readers, a former TV publicist, is available for temporary and part-time employment. She's a writer and is experienced in all phases of publicity, with expertise in beauty, fashion, magazines and press events. Contact GVWESTLA@aol.com.
