March 3, 2008 News

POST ST. VALENTINE'S MASSACRE x THREE OR FOUR

Twenty-two people lost their jobs Friday at the Daily News, among them long time music writer Fred Shuster and features writer Val Kuklenski. See the full list and tributes here.

This story on DistrictWeekly.com details the news last Friday that "[The Long Beach] Press-Telegram, a name synonymous with local journalism for 110 years, suffered deep staff cuts and a corporate restructuring that leaves it as little more than a bureau for the Torrance-based Daily Breeze."

More here at LAObserved.

Also, nine people lost their jobs at the Daily Breeze Thursday, and in New York, 120 Newsday positions were eliminated, 25 in the newsroom.

Very sad.


ON THE OTHER HAND…

According to an AP internal memo posted by LA Observed, Josh Dickey and Derrik Lang have joined the West Coast as deputy entertainment editor (Dickey) and entertainment writer focusing on the celebrity scene (Lang).


IN STYLE PROMOTES HONOR BRODIE

Honor Brodie, InStyle's features editor in charge of entertainment coverage (out of New York), has been promoted to managing editor. No word yet on who's filling her old job. I believe Mark Morrison is still the west coast editor, based here.

February 18, 2008 News

HELP – I NEED A SMALL FILM PROJECT PUBLICIST TO REFER

Can anyone out there email me with a recommendation for a small PR firm or independent publicist with expertise in handling a project for an independent film? I'd love to suggest someone really good to the filmmaker, who is the husband of one of my clients. Let me know: Laura.Stegman@hotmail.com, thanks!


LA TIMES FEATURES ME JOHN MONTORIO GETS THE AX MONDAY

Nikke Finke has the memo. Read it and more about this here.


NEW DAILY NEWS RESTAURANT CONTACTS

Larry Lipson retires as Daily News restaurant critic after 50 years. Food Editor Natalie Haughton and travel writer Eric Nolan will continue to review restaurants both in the Valley and in their "Over the Hill" column.


GLAMOUR NAMES WEST COAST EDITOR

James Patrick Herman starts March 10 as west coast editor of Glamour. You probably remember him from his most recent role at InStyle.


NEW PRODUCER AT KWHY'S CON CILE Y LIMON

May thanks to Leticia Buckley for passing on the tip that Annie Coronado is the new producer at KWHY'S Con Chile y Limon replacing Daisy Ruiz. Coronado provides this formal contact info:
Annelyne Coronado
Producer - "Con Chile y Limon"
KWHY - Canal 22
3000 W. Alameda Ave. Suite 1353-A
Burbank, CA 91505
Annelyne.Coronado@nbcuni.com


AMERICAN WAY MAGAZINE CONTENT ONLINE

You can read American Airlines' inflight mag content, current and past issues, at www.AmericanWayMag.com.


THEY'RE GONNA PUT ME IN THE MOVIES…

Are you a closet screenwriter? You might want to check out this great new "all hands script project" from Eric Estrin and LA Observed.

February 13, 2008 News

BAD NEWS FROM LA TIMES

As if the new LA Times owner's personality isn't enough bad news, the Times announced today upcoming layoffs of 100 to 150 people.

February 11, 2008 News

NOTES ON HEALTHCARE REPORTERS

Carol Stevenson generously passed on her thorough and informative notes from a media breakfast with some healthcare reporters, and I'm excerpting them here:

Lisa Girion, a Los Angeles Times business reporter

Lisa Girion is a Los Angeles Times business reporter who covers primarily health insurance and some hospital-related news. These days the business section is very consumer-oriented, she said. Lisa is looking for stories that address the relationship between consumers and health insurance companies and/or hospitals. She looks at all her e-mails, but rarely checks her voicemail. It’s better to pitch reporters than editors. Use key words in subject line to make searching easier. (i.e. “Leading Geriatrician,” “Medicare Advantage Expert,” etc.). She wants direct access to the spokesperson rather than coordinating an interview with the PR person. Ideally, she’d like the cell number for the source. She is not likely to connect with a PR person so that person can arrange an interview. She’ll just move on to the next source. LA Times is competitive with New York Times, WSJ and USA Today. They WILL NOT cover a story that’s been covered in one of those papers. If you pitch a story to her, haven’t heard back and would like to pitch it elsewhere, send her a note with “Planning to Pitch this to the New York Times” next to your original subject heading to let her know that you’re taking the story elsewhere. She does not have time to meet you for coffee and rarely holds desk side meetings.

Who Does What in Healthcare at the Times?

Daniel Costello, business reporter focusing on physicians and hospitals.

Mary Engel, metro public health reporter – Does not cover private hospitals, business or consumer healthcare-related products; nor does she do week, month or day healthcare observances.

Alice Short, new healthcare editor for California section

Ron Lin, new healthcare reporter for California section

Ricardo Alonso Saldibar, Washington bureau reporter who covers federal government healthcare issues, SCHIP, debate over curbing costs, etc. as well as drug and food safety

Charles Ornstein and Tracey Weber, investigative healthcare reporting

Mr. Jordan Rau, Sacramento bureau covers legislation – healthcare politics and policy, political initiatives and campaigns

Shari Roan, health section main reporter covers everything but fitness. Requires a strong news peg.

Tami Dennis, one of health section’s main editors, interested in consumer health and trends, news you can use. Calling her to see if she got your e-mail just irritates her.

Denise Gellene, science reporter focused on psych, behavior and neuroscience (“above the shoulders”)

Tom Maugh, science reporter focused on medical breakthroughs

Mr. Ashley Dunn, science editor

Gia-rui Chong, infectious diseases

Karen Kaplan, genetics

Deborah Crowe, LABJ Healthcare Reporter

She focuses on LA first and only rarely Orange County. The business you're pitching needs to be located in LA or have a major LA influence. Sometimes covers the SFV; they’re trying to do more. She’s looking for trend, overview and analysis healthcare business stories. If you’re pitching more than one person at the BJ, be upfront about it in your e-mail. Do not call her on Wednesdays. or Thursdays. Fridays are good days to follow up. She doesn’t mind follow ups, but make sure it’s a good time. Don’t worry if you don’t hear back, as she might be hanging onto it for future reference. She will NOT cover a story that’s been in the LA Times or in any of the other top five national dailies. Like Lisa at the LA Times, Deborah likes e-mails with bite-sized bullet points at the top and supporting info. later in the e-mail. She contributes to a page three column that focuses on “something bright, something light.” This would be the place to land something that’s a little “off.” Always have a cell number for your spokesperson and make sure they are in fact available when you pitch the story. As we know, nonprofits don’t get much attention in the LABJ. What helps your chances of getting coverage for a nonprofit is if the organization is partnering with a corporation, which creates a business angle. They do not cover charity work.

TWICE A WEEK

The Beverly Hills Courier begins publishing twice a week (adding Wednesdays to Fridays) on February 27, according to a front-page note in its February 8 issue.

VENTURA COUNTY STAR ADDRESS

Unbeknownst to me, the Ventura County Star's mailing address changed (not sure when) to: P.O. Box 6006, Camarillo, CA 93011, and the newspaper's main phone number is now 805-437-0000.

NEW ARTS-ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR AT TIME.COM

Caryn Brooks (caryn_brooks@timemagazine.com), previously an "Associated Press asap" entertainment editor.

February 6, 2008 News

NEW ''EVERYTHING ELSE" WEB SITE-BLOG FROM AL MARTINEZ

Check it out here. Al says it "takes you a step beyond what I currently write in my Monday column for the Los Angeles Times. In it, we'll talk politics, culture, war, family life and, well, everything else."


NEW EDUCATION REPORTER AT LA OPINION

Thanks to Jessica Schmidt at The Rogers Group for passing this on: "Ivan Mejia is the new reporter assigned to cover education issues since Ruben Moreno was just assigned to cover City Hall."


NEW MASTHEAD NOTATIONS

Noticed some new-ish names in the Westside Today newspapers masthead (Brentwood News, Beverly Hills 90210, Santa Monica Sun): Shannon Dunn (shannon@westsidetoday.com) is Editorial Director; Jim Bursch (jimbursch@westsidetoday.com) is Community News Editor and Online Media Director; and Katie Grim is Managing Editor (katie@westsidetoday.com).

At Beverly Hills 213, Natalya Garber is Assistant Editor. Not sure how new this is, but I just noticed it.

January 28, 2008 News

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.' "

January 22, 2008 News

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 Booker
TV Guide Network
1800 N. Highland Ave., 6th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90028
323-817-4806
heather.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."