May 7, 2009 News

This blog is two years old this month. Can't quite believe it. Thanks for all the support and tips.


Got a note that Senior Editor Bob Hofler is now in charge of assigning theatre reviews at Variety. Variety.com email is: bob.hofler


Fishbowl LA reports the arrival of former CityBeat film critic Andy Klein at BrandX.


Restaurant critic Merrill Shindler is back on KABC 790 AM. His show airs 7-8 pm on Sundays.


Los Angeles and San Francisco editions of The Onion shut down, per this memo from President and CEO Steve Hannah, courtesy of LAIst.com

As most of you have heard through the very twisted grapevine by now, we have decided to shut down our print operations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Both staffs were informed in person yesterday that their last editions would be published this week. It is an unpleasant task to discontinue print in those two cities—and to lay off the good people who worked hard to make them profitable—but I believe it is the wise business decision to make.

At the quarterly Board meeting in Chicago two weeks ago, we took a hard look at the company’s business operations in this very tough economic environment. Overall, we are weathering the storm, and, as you know, we have avoided taking many of the draconian measures employed by other media companies. Unfortunately, despite healthy readership in both Los Angeles and San Francisco (readership has actually risen despite our reduction in copies in recent months) the advertising in both cities has been abysmal.

This stands in stark contrast to other parts of our business—both the majority of our print markets (Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Denver, Boulder, for example) as well as our rapidly growing digital enterprises (theonion.com, avclub.com, the Onion News Network and Decider.com—which are growing nicely and in some cases dramatically. So, at the end of the day, you have to make a decision whether to pump money into parts of the company that are straining us financially (LA and SF print) or reroute that capital into the areas of the company that are growing in size and value.

We chose the latter.

We love our print publications. They are the foundation of the Onion and, in the majority of our markets, they make us money. We have no plans at this time to cease publication in any of our other markets.

May 4, 2009 News

Nice to see some good LA media outlets among the Western Publishing Association's Maggie Award winners, including LA Weekly, Sunset, Where Los Angeles (way to go, Benjamin!), and the late LA Stage. Full list here.


Thanks to LA Observed for passing on this info from SCVTALK.com, the Santa Clarita Valley blog. Take the link for more details.

A brand new, locally-owned and locally-staffed newspaper will be coming soon to newsracks near you.

Jay Harn, former publisher at The Signal, has told SCVTalk that he’s launching a weekly newspaper called the Santa Clarita Valley Independent.

The 30-40 page weekly tabloid-style paper will feature original news, sports and entertainment stories as well as opinion pieces.

Looks like my zip code is too low class for the LA Times' monthly magazine to be included in my paper (loyal subscriber that I am!), but I found it online here. I'll probably take the time to read Howard Rosenman's remembrance of Leonard Bernstein, but nothing else caught my interest. Still, what are the odds I would have read more – and viewed their ads – if I'd gotten the paper version? Inquiring advertisers might want to know.

Got this tip today, not connected to the above paragraph, but certainly relevant. Looks like the LA Times will offer a product for "the rest of us" (subscribers, anyway). Reference to this LA Etcetera made in John T. O'Loughlin's memo quoted in this post.

The Los Angeles Times is launching LA Etcetera, a new weekly lifestyle magazine, on May 10. Its coverage will include entertainment, fashion, food, shopping and the nightlife of Southern California. The magazine will be home-delivered to Times subscribers with the newspaper’s Sunday edition.

Initial circulation will be 480,000. LA Etcetera is being produced by the editorial staff of the newspaper’s monthly magazine, LA, with Annie Gilbar as editor in chief.

April 27, 2009 News

Cuts at the Daily News last Friday, according to LA Observed, were Oscar Garza and:

according to multiple newsroom sources… City Hall reporter Brandon Lowrey and Santa Clarita reporter Jerry Berrios.

LA Observed has part of Garza's farewell memo, which contains the news that:

The DN will soon stop delivering over the hill…

More cuts at NPR, with details in this New York Times piece.


Features Editor Brenda Tabor is no longer at Westways, I learned last Friday. Al Bonowitz, the other features editor, remains in place.


Got an email kicked back from Amy Wolf, who was Sunset Magazine's travel editor, which said:

I'm no longer working at Sunset. For travel-related matters please get in touch with [Features Editor] Christine Richard.

Another email kick-back was passed on to me by Susan Gordon, this one from Los Angeles Magazine (although we already reported Margot's departure):

Margot Dougherty is no longer with Los Angeles magazine. She can be reached via me.com at margotdougherty.

Please contact Lesley Bargar with information regarding the dine section. Mary Melton can be contacted regarding Encounters.

April 23, 2009 News

Very sad news: the passing of LA Times reporter Annette Haddad. LA Observed has the memo from Times Editor Russ Stanton.

Also at the Times, Steve Padilla has joined the national desk as an assistant national editor. Memo here.


Laura Clark is another name among the Variety layoffs last week.


Interesting story in the NY Observer about coverage of Hollywood by bloggers vs "traditional" media, with juicy quotes from Peter Bart, Anita Busch, Nikke Finke and Sharon Waxman.


LA Confidential news, according to FishbowlLA:

Sari Tuschman, formerly of E! Entertainment Television has been named editor-in-chief. Lesley McKenzie was promoted to deputy editor from sister publication Michigan Avenue. Alison Miller has been appointed publisher, and Jason Binn, CEO and founder of parent company Niche Media, has taken on the role of editorial director.

April 15, 2009 News

Brand X goes live online as of now and in print every Wednesday. Take the link to read the intro letter from Editors Dean Kuipers and Deborah Vankin. An excerpt:

Look for upcoming features on green-collar jobs, DIY mixology, steampunk in video games and so much more. What iPhone app measures your car’s global footprint? Who is L.A.’s new, breakout, eco-conscious fashion designer? What’s the next online meeting space post-Twitter? Because it’s produced by the Los Angeles Times, Brand X will always feature the best info on must-see area concerts, exhibitions and events. It packs all the listings power L.A. needs but has expanded to address strategies for living as global citizens. Global citizens who like to have fun.

Variety layoffs yesterday include Executive Editor Michael Speier. The Wrap has the full story, including this excerpt from RBI CEO Tad Smith's gloomy memo:

We recently completed our quarterly forecast for the full year and the revenue outlook continues to concern us. On January 26th I wrote to you that we might reduce further our staffing levels if the economic circumstances became worse than our already conservative expectations for 2009. We are in that unfortunate situation today.

If you work with Atlanta clients, you'll want to check out this list of 74 journalists laid off at the Journal/Constitution, including four arts critics.


I enjoyed (and recommend) this lovely and funny story by LA Times arts writer Diane Haithman about her dog Heidi's (and her) brush with show biz fame.


Couldn't resist posting this adorable photo from last Sunday:

CREDIT: White House Photo, 4/13/09, Lawrence Jackson

FYI TO BLOG READERS ON MY EMAIL LIST I'm sending email alerts from my laura.stegman address AND also now from a newer one, laura_stegman (in both cases from hotmail.com), in case you want to "white list" that second one.

April 6, 2009 News

LA Times staffer Susan Denley joints Features Editor Alice Short's team as associate features editor to:

…assist in identifying and editing potential A-1 stories, develop a greater range of lifestyle coverage, take over features’ reverse-publishing initiative and provide backup assistance to the editors of the weekly sections…

according to this memo from the LAT Readers Rep.


LA Observed has news and links to dish about Peter Bart's new title "as vice president and editorial director of Variety." Quoting from Variety:

Bart will basically serve as editor emeritus and ambassador to the entertainment community as he blogs and delivers his weekly column.

LA Observed says that Variety editor Tim Gray is now in charge of the news operation.


From the Orange County Register's radio columnist Gary Lycon:

KMVN, known as “Movin 93.9” FM, is moving on out April 14, and so is Rick Dees. The Emmis Communications-owned station is switching to a Spanish format on April 15.

TWO GOOD READS

Kudos to the LA Times (yes, you read that right) for a bunch of terrific front-page features over the last week or two, capped by Thomas Curwen's BEAUTIFULLY written two-part "Ana's Story." I love that this moving odyssey was pitched by a publicist -- special recognition to Curwen for giving a shout-out to "The manager of public relations at Scripps Memorial Hospital" toward the beginning of the of the article.

This story's been told before but not quite in such depth: Cleveland Magazine's piece about Plain Dealer classical music critic Don Rosenberg discussing "access sanctions" by the Cleveland Orchestra and ultimately beat reassignment by his newspaper after his ongoing negative reviews of the conductor. Despite the article's even-handed tone, one comes away with a "what the heck?" feeling that the Plain Dealer appears to have caved under pressure.

Wonder how it would play out at the LA Times if something like that happened with one of L.A.'s top arts organizations.

April 2, 2009 News

I was asked by Cision to contribute to their "Expert Articles," and my piece, titled WEB SITES A PR PROFESSIONAL SHOULD CHECK EVERY DAY, is up today! Check it out here. A few of you are actually mentioned by name.

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Kelly Scott transfers from the LA Times' national desk back to , according to this memo posted on LA Observed. To quote directly:

To start, Kelly will help out with our arts and culture coverage and captain our effort to enhance coverage of celebrity life in SoCal.

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KTLA expands its news schedule in collaboration with the LA Times. LA Observed has all the details but here's an excerpt:

KTLA-TV today will launch the one-hour KTLA News at 1 and KTLA News at 4:30 to its weekday morning news schedule… Concurrently, the station has elevated Jason Ball to news director from his previous role as assistant news director… Frank Buckley and Michaela Pereira will anchor the afternoon broadcast, with Jessica Holmes reporting on weather and entertainment. Los Angeles Times business columnist Tom Petruno will deliver “Money Matters”, the first local television news report on Wall Street’s closing bell, while Times’ food editor Russ Parsons and test kitchen manager Noelle Carter will cover the “Eat Beat.”

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