CURRENT AND RECENT-ish NEWS....From Fishbowl NY:Sumathi Reddy, general assignment reporter for Newsday, is joining The Wall Street Journal's New York team to write about restaurants, reports the New York Observer. The Journal has been making several changes of late in the food space. Last week, the paper added Jay McInerney and Lettie Teague as wine columnists, and dropped restaurant critic Raymond Sokolov earlier this month.
Full story HERE.From LA Observed:Gustavo Turner [is now] music editor of the LA Weekly, replacing Randall Roberts.
Details HERE, and more on Randall Roberts below.Also from LA Observed:The Huffington Post is reporting that Adam Nagourney, the chief national political correspondent for the New York Times, is leaving Washington to be the paper's Los Angeles bureau chief. Current bureau chief Jennifer Steinhauer is heading the other way, to cover Congress in the Washngton bureau.
More info HERE.From the LA Times:Randall Roberts has joined the arts and entertainment group as pop music editor, overseeing the popular Pop & Hiss blog and coverage of the fast-evolving recording industry, the vibrant local scene of bands and hit-makers, and national and international artists from country and jazz to hip-hop, pop and rock ‘n’ roll.
Jori Finkel will join the staff to cover art and architecture
Take THIS LINK for additional details.Thanks to Flo Selfman for passing this contact along, if you don't already have it on your mailing list:Mike Carlin, Editor Century City Newswww.centurycitynews.com P.O.Box 69854Los AngelesCA 90069Tel 310 597 1828Fax 424 789 2136 Mike's gmail.com address is centurycitynewsent@Variety has DETAILS of layoffs at KCBS/KCAL, among them morning co-anchor Suzanne Rico, news operations manager Doug Dougherty and executive producer Jeff Soto. Long-time weathercaster Johnny Mountain retires.KPCC updates:New address/phone:474 South Raymond AvenuePasadena, CA 91105 Phone: (626) 583-5100Fax: (626) 583-5101And, from LA Observed: Madeleine Brand, the former host of "Day to Day" on National Public Radio, will host a news magazine show in the old DTD slot at 9 a.m. on KPCC's daily schedule.
More HERE.OLDER NEWS...Poynter has the full memo HERE from Tim Gray, Variety editor, titled 'It doesn't make economic sense to have full-time reviewers.'Per LA Observed on March 1:KSCN, the Cal State Northridge radio station at 88.5 FM, switched at 10 a.m. to Adult Album Alternative (AAA or Triple A) format 24 hours a day.
Thanks to Larry Mayer for THIS LINK to the press release:From Dikla Kadosh, a while ago, at the Jewish Journal:I am no longer the Calendar Editor at the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. To reach the new editor, Ryan Torok, please address all event-related emails to "calendar" (@jewishjournal.com). And kindly remove [my] email address (diklak) from any mailing lists.
Entertainment Tonight emails are @cbs.com and no longer @cbsparamount.comTake the LA Times' Jerry Hirsch off your food/business lists, and add him to auto, per THIS rather un-recent Times Reader's Rep memoLisa Sweetingham is now deputy editor at Angeleno, replacing Jade Chang who's now the online executive producer.
AND FINALLY...Deepest condolences to family and friends of the lovely Mark Ferber, with whom I crossed paths many times in my work over the years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mark, who worked at the Hollywood Bowl for 45 years, passed away March 14 at age 60.
This LA Times OBIT has more about him, but even if you think you didn't know him, you probably did. If you've ever attended a concert at the Bowl, you heard him as "the voice" that made the pre-concert greeting and the post-concert farewell, live every performance. Among my favorites: "Secure all cel phones, wine bottles and other noisemakers," and "Don't empty your ice chest on the sidewalk."
RIP, Mark. Will miss you.
COOL SITES ALERT!1. Thanks to Ann Brenoff for this one: Newseum.org has a terrific feature that displays daily newspaper front pages from around the country when you hover/click on a location in their US map.2. A non-publicist friend posted a link to this site, PDFmyURL, which turns any web site page into a PDF for easy printing, etc. It's PERFECT for web sites that don't print as they appear on the monitor!Speaking of useful web sites, and I believe I've mentioned this before, TheLookbook.com, is an online database where subscribers can join to get access to fashion and beauty PR contacts as well as information on wardrobe stylists, hairstylists and make up artists and their celebrity clients. President and co-Founder Kristen Steinhilber Calavas adds a position to her plate: PR Consultant for Serfontaine Denim, a brand that also works with Preface PR in Los Angeles for showroom services.Thanks to Trevor Thomas for letting me know that Robert Nesti is the new EDGE publications assignment editor for all theater reviews. Kevin Mark Kline, who previously handled that, is now operations manager.Also, EDGE Publications' new address is:434 Massachusetts Avenue#501Boston, MA 02118617-422-0707 (main)617-391-0883 (fax)This tip comes courtesy of Flo Selfman (thanks!) from Brad Pomerance:Dear Friends:As you may remember, I host "Local Edition," which is a five-minute interview interstitial that airs on CNN HLN in Southern California. As part of "Local Edition," we launched our franchise "Celebrities With A Cause," where I interview celebrities about their involvement in charitable, philanthropic and humanitarian organizations.
Well I am pleased to report that while we are of course continuing our Celebrity franchise on "Local Edition," we are expanding it on "Special Edition." Special Edition is a 1/2 hour interview program that will air throughout Southern California in homes served by Charter. So for those celebrities that would like the opportunity to highlight their involvement in their favorite causes, we now have a full thirty minutes to enlighten our viewers. All we ask is that the celebrity's representatives work with us to gather as much compelling still and moving b-roll to help bring the interview segments to life.
If one of your celebrity clients would be interested in joining us for such a thirty-minute interview, please contact me at your convenience.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
With much appreciation,
Brad Pomerance
Host, Local Edition &
Special Edition
Brad's @mac.com email is bradpomerance.And finally, a one-day-after "Happy Birthday" shout out to my esteemed colleague, the ultra-wonderful Libby Huebner.
Life After 50 Magazine's masthead shows David Laurell as editor now, apparently replacing Darcy Alvey. His @lifeafter50.com email address is david. The masthead also shows 50 S. DeLacey Avenue, Suite 200, Pasadena 91105 as the publication's address now, rather than in San Diego. The mag is owned by Southland Publishing, whose Pasadena Weekly and Arroyo Monthly are headquarted at the same Pasadena address. From Cision:
Chris Krewson has been named the new editor of Variety.com. He currently serves as the executive editor for online/news at philly.com and is set to join Variety in February. He will replace Dana Harris, who is moving to another position with the publication. Krewson is available on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ckrewson.
Joy Press is joining the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 4, 2010, as a pop culture editor and deputy television editor. She will split time between the New York and Los Angeles offices until spring 2010, when she will be permanently based in Los Angeles. She previously was the culture editor of Salon.com and had also served as an arts and culture editor, television critic, book critic and editor of the Voice Literary Supplement for The Village Voice. She began her journalism career as a rock critic for Melody Maker and a contributing editor at Spin.
Cision also reports the departure of writer David Keeps from the LA Times in December. From the New York Post: Collen Curtis, AOL's editorial director of women's and lifestyle programming, is hiring about a dozen Gourmet editors who lost their jobs when the magazine shut down in November. They'll develop recipes and content for a new AOL food site launching next month. Cheryl Brown, a Gourmet editor for a decade, will serve as editor of the site, which has yet to be named. AOL has also tapped "Top Chef" judge Gail Simmons, and chefs Marcus Samuelsson and Curtis Stone to develop their own video series for the site.
LA Observed reports these new LA Times reporter assignments; read entire memo here.Metro desk reporter Mitchell Landesberg is the new religion writer at the Los Angeles Times. Also, Ron Lin moves to the county Hall of Administration beat, plus there are new reporters assigned to regional government [Kay Saillant] and crime [Richard Winton].
In other news, happy birthday to my fabulous mother, Claire Segal (tomorrow!).
SO MUCH to catch up on! Let's start at the very beginning....LA TIMES NEWS1. LA Times closes Orange County presses, debuts news section, and announces other changes, which I've summarized/excerpted below:The Los Angeles Times is closing its printing operations in Orange County to cut costs and will begin publishing a new section devoted to late-breaking news…
To accommodate earlier deadlines necessitated by the elimination of the plant, the paper will launch a section dubbed LATExtra to run late-breaking news that was previously published in individual sections. LATExtra will appear Monday through Saturday, beginning Feb. 2...
... Joe Eckdahl, the paper's senior editor/Page One, [is] editor of the new section.
In another cost-saving measure, the paper will eliminate the stand-alone Business section on Mondays. Business-oriented stories will appear inside the main news section that day.
The Food section will move to Thursdays...
As part of the changes, the width of the paper will be reduced to 44 inches from 48 inches...
Read the entire story here.2. More on LATExtra from a publisher's note, available in full here.Designed to address print capacity complexities, create later print deadlines and complement Main A’s analysis and examination of the issues confronting our readers on local, national and global fronts, LATExtra will focus largely on California stories and include end-of-day reporting from across the spectrum. LATExtra will run Monday through Saturday and also include Weather and Obituaries in order to allow later deadlines.
3. Times Media Group launches two Orange County-oriented websites:The Los Angeles Times Media Group and U.S. Local News Network Inc. have formed a joint venture that will include launching two news websites aimed at readers and advertisers in Orange County.
The venture… will allow the companies to share content and advertising sales across the sites -- www.theocnow.com and www.oclnn.com -- and those of three existing Times-owned local newspapers in Orange County: the Coastline Pilot, the Daily Pilot and the Huntington Beach Independent.
Full story here.4. Scott Sandell takes on more responsibilities, according to this memo:Scott Sandell, who has brought new energy and news-orientation to the entertainment report since being named Calendar morning editor just a few months ago, will take on expanded duties as deputy online arts and entertainment editor.
In his new position, Scott will report to Online Arts and Entertainment Editor Lisa Fung, working with her to expand our film, television, music, Company Town, celebrity and arts and culture coverage on the Web. He will continue to serve as the morning editor and as the liaison between the print and Web efforts, unifying our coverage, particularly of breaking news and daily features. Working closely with assignment editors, Scott will develop Web-only content for stories, coordinate the planning of Web components for longer-range projects and help develop blogging and social media training programs for editors and reporters.
5. Last fall, Jason Gelt replaced George Ducker as the contact for the Calendar Section Events and Kids listings._______________Valley Magazine Publisher Jane Boeckmann's "Note" in the December issue of casually drops this news:"A new year often brings growth and change, and such is the case at World of Communications, Inc. After more than 20 years of publishing 'Valley Magazine,' we will be closing a beloved chapter of our company's history. This will be the last issue..."
_______________Join me in congratulating former LA Times writer Diane Haithman, who has hooked up with Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood site, according to this from LA Observed.LA Observed also reports that food writers Jonathan Gold and Barbara Hansen are both now contributing to the LA Weekly's popular Squid Ink food blog in addition to everything they've been doing previously. Hansen's Table Conversations blog is here.Kudos to LA Observed for the redesign (and for being such a wonderful resource in general!)And, in case you missed it, here's more from LA Observed from a while back...1) ...names names of LA Times staffers laid off here and here;2) ...posts Daily News memo announcing departure of staff writer Sue Doyle here;3) ...reveals info on LA Weekly's new film editor and reporter here:_______________Bookmark LARadio.com for useful news, including this from a recent post:
KFWB is dropping afternooner Rodger Hedgecock and replacing him with a news block from4 p.m. – 7 p.m. Co-anchoring the new drive time show will be Maggie McKay and Michael Shappee.
_______________Got an email last week with this info/opportunity...On behalf of UCLA Anderson School of Management and the G. and R. Loeb Foundation, I would like to invite you to participate in the 2010 Loeb Awards call for entries. The Loeb Awards are the most prestigious honor in business journalism. Our mission is to recognizing writers, editors and producers who make significant contributions to the understanding of business, finance and the economy for both the private investor and the general public. For the 2010 competition, the Loeb Awards are evolving by incorporating new media and new technologies. We’ve created two new Loeb Awards categories: Online Commentary and Blogging; and Personal Finance.
Submissions and nominations for the 13 competition categories and two career achievement awards will be accepted online only at www.loeb.anderson.ucla.edu.
_______________PR practitioner Zan Dubin Scott is teaching a PR class in February for "anyone who wants to achieve media exposure to change behavior, inspire action or boost revenue for a cause, nonprofit organization, business or government agency." It's called PR Plugged In: A Hands-On, Real-World Course, and it meets on Thursdays (Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25), 7-9 p.m., at Ballona Institute Research Library in Playa del Rey.
You'll find the details this week on her site, ZDS Communications.
_______________NPR launches a new blog:
13.7, a blog set at the intersection of science and culture. Our goal is to engage in a discussion with each other -- and you -- about how science has shaped culture and how culture has shaped science.
Take the link above for more details._______________
OLDER NEWS FROM DECEMBER...Lucy Pollak strikes again with this updated info:Linda Williamson has replaced Deborah Shadowitz as editor at ValleyLife Magazine.
Emai is linda ---[at]--- ljwilliamson dot comAnd so does Brenda Rees, who writes:...got a call from a freelancer who is working with a new magazine that will premiere here in Los Angeles. Home L.A. It's put out by the same group that publishes similiar high-end quarterly magazines in the Miami area (www.homemia.com). The first issue is expected to hit the streets in February...
Flo Selfman passes on these two items from Media Bistro's Revolving Door newsletter:The Los Angeles Times' book section writer Susan Salter Reynolds and assistant book editor Orli Low leave the paper, which now features just two full-time staffers and a blogger manning the Book Review section...
Richard Rushfield leaves Gawker after just four months as West Coast editor. The former L.A. Times scribe joins the Digital Entertainment Corporation of America as editorial consultant. Gabriel Snyder, Gawker's managing editor, says there will be masthead additions in the coming weeks...
Omar Cuningham shares:1) this from writer Amy Prince:After a challenging yet creatively fulfilling year and a half as executive editor, the January/February 2010 issue of Surface is my last. I thank you for your support of and enthusiasm for the magazine and do hope you stay in touch. Until then, wishing you a restful holiday season and a productive start to the new year.
Reach her now via amy ]at[ witty pioneers dot com
and2) this, in part, from Jesse Ashlock:
Dear Friends,
If you’re receiving this note, there’s a good chance you’ve already heard the news last week that I.D. magazine will cease publication after 55 years. As announced last week, the Annual Design Review will continue in online form—and entries for this year’s competition are still being accepted—but the January/February issue will be the magazine’s last. To all those I’ve worked with during my four-year association with the magazine, and especially over my last eight months as editor, it’s been an honor and a privilege.
Jesse adds:For questions about I.D. and the future of the Annual Design Review, please contact Gary Lynch at gary.lynch [at] fwmedia dot com
If it’s me you’re after, I’ll be easy to find:
jesseashlock ]at[ g mail dot com
www.jesseashlock.com
Susan Gordon passes this on from the Jewish Journal: "TRIBE, A Jewish Journal Media Group monthly magazine for the affluent communities of Malibu, the West San Fernando Valley, Conejo and Simi Valley, Ventura and Santa Barbara! Tribe is the definitive news, lifestyle, and opinion monthly for the regions most sophisticated, affluent, and involved readers. Tribe covers the people, culture, entertainment, and news that define the Jews of Southern California! "
_______________From Cision, last month:Layoffs come to The New York Times. In total, 26 staffers were expected to lose their jobs after 74 took buyouts. The biggest names include Culture's Eric Konigsberg and Allen Salkin from the Style section. Additionally, Michele Monteleone and Ross M. Schneiderman are out. Expect more names to be revealed in the coming days...
_______________This is a long overdue recommendation for www.martinperlich.com, the highly regarded (and greatly missed) Martin Perlich's new website/podcast series offering free downloads of his in-depth arts interviews from his more than 40 years of broadcasting.
There are talks with composers, conductors and performers constituting a veritable history of classical music from 1965 to 2008, including Leonard Bernstein, Darius Milhaud, Anna Netrebko, Steve Reich, Frank Zappa and hundreds more. There are also interviews with figures from jazz, pop, theatre, film and more, among them Gore Vidal, Bill Evans, Tom Waits, Martin Scorsese, Randy Newman, Roy Orbison and others.
As you no doubt know, Martin, the ‘retired’ PD at KCSN-FM, is author of the classic The Art of the Interview: A Guide to Insightful Interviewing and a novelist as well. He's begun a new series of audio and video podcasts, initially focusing on new music but soon to expand to a broad range of modern/post-modern genres in film, drama, dance, and books. Check it out soon!_______________Finally, Happy New Year!Here's a gift to start 2010 off right from Paul J. Krupin, whose Direct Contact PR web site is a treasure trove of resources for publicists. He writes:Each year for the past five years I've created an annual publicity plan to help people look ahead and map out their ideas for publicity throughout the year. It's a free pdf file download I just give away to anyone who can benefit.
This unique publicity planner provides a month-at-a-glance roadmap to holidays throughout the year and identifies the lead time for each holiday. This years edition now captures all sorts of monthly calendar events and weird and unusual national and world holidays.
The special design makes it easy to develop a detailed personalized framework of key dates and events so that you map out your strategy and ideas to promote your book, product, business, organization or event in 2010 and make sure you take advantage of the needed lead time to work with target media.
You'll find this Planner on his site's Free Downloads page, which also has a generous group of sample news releases on a variety of subjects.Check out his blog, too.
Thanks, Paul!
This LA Times news just in, per LA Observed, via an LA Times memo (read memo by taking the link):
Kelly Scott will succeed Lisa Fung as arts and culture editor and Suzanne Muchnic is retiring as arts reporter after 31 years at The Times.
If you're looking for V Page editor Mia McNeice at Variety, note this auto reply I got today:Thank you for your e-mail. I am currently out of the office on maternity leave. If you have any questions about events and the V Page please contact Vanessa Morsse. Have a great holiday season and I will be in touch once I return.
The email address @variety.com is Vanessa.Morsse.The LA Times moves religion writer Duke Helfand over to the Business staff as a health industry writer, per LA Observed. And Business writer Lisa Girion goes to "metro," according to this memo.LA Observed also says that more LA Times layoffs are coming tomorrow (December 15). I read that more layoffs at Fox TV (local) are imminent as well.From Cision:Senior editor and columnist Lorrie Lynch has been let go from USA Weekend. She leaves amidst recent staff layoffs at the publication and at USA Today, as previously reported in The Navigator. Lynch joined the magazine in 1990 and penned the celebrities Who's News column.
andFrancis Lam has joined the Internet magazine Salon.com as a food editor and has helped launch the site's food section. He most recently served as a blogger for Gourmet.com and was a contributing editor for Gourmet magazine until its recent closure. Lam can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Francis_Lam
Wanted to make a special shout out to Harriette Smith and her In the Wings blog… check it out here!I'm concluding with this video from Disneyland that details how candy canes are made. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Gawker reports:DailyCandy will now stop publishing city-specific editions in all but five of those 12 cities: New York, London, LA, Chicago and San Francisco. Subscribers in the other cities will now receive an "Everywhere" edition, supplemented with local news and events twice a week.
Details and memo here.The Huffington Post launches an LA site. Read Editor Willow Bay's welcome with details here. She concludes with:We hope you'll enjoy hearing from these new contributors and others we'll continue to add to the mix. Our Los Angeles editor, Billy Silverman, and I would like to hear more from you, too. Send us your ideas for stories, tips, and feedback in the comments below, or email us at losangeles [at] huffingtonpost.com.
LA Observed reports the LA Times hiring of writer Amy Kaufman to join the "movie group." Her……responsibility principally will be to report breaking news for Calendar and Company Town, although she also will write feature stories and analysis pieces.
More info and memo here.Also from LA Observed:Hollywoodnews.com expects to launch in January with former Los Angeles Times film reporter Robert Welkos as the editor and Carlos de Abreu as CEO and publisher.
Take this link for more.From Cision:Chris Gray has left USA Today, where she served as a travel assignment editor and editor of the travel section, Destinations and Diversions. At this time, a direct replacement has not been named for her role, but travel section editor and reporter Kitty Bean Yancey, 703-854-3768, is the best contact for Destinations and Diversions. Gray will continue to write her travel blog, Chris Around the World. She can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/caroundtheworld.
andVickie Bane has accepted a buyout at People and is no longer with the weekly magazine, where she served as a staff writer. She covered news and personalities at the Los Angeles bureau.
and Laura Dye Lang is no longer with Sunset Magazine, where she served as home editor. A replacement has not been named for her role at the lifestyle magazine.
andLisa Trottier has been named travel editor of Sunset Magazine. She also contributes to the Sunset Traveler blog. She previously served as a contributing editor for the publication.
Thanks very much to the intrepid Brenda Rees for this:Just got a call from an ad rep from Edible Los Angeles regarding the winter issue of Edible Los Angeles, a fine publication, if I do say so!
Seems that they are "suspending" their winter issue because of some "restructuring" complications. They are planning to print a spring issue.
Seems a little suspect to me, but I like the publication and hope this isn't a sign of another magazine going south.
LA Observed breaks the news that LA Times Readers Rep Jamie Gold is leaving the paper and speculates… …it's unclear if her exit is part of the fairly large newsroom reduction (via buyouts and layoffs) that staffers expect to hit next week. The buzz is that several staffers who lose their jobs will be invited back as contract workers, at lower pay and without benefits, to begin once the calendar year turns over on Dec. 31…
More LA Times… read the announcement of its new hire, "Steven Zeitchik [who] is joining The Times’ entertainment team as a reporter and blogger assigned to cover the movie industry." So sad to read about Mike Penner's death… Downtown News writer Anna Scott debuted her own blog a few weeks ago, with this welcome message: This is a blog about LA people. Or, to put it more fancifully, Angelenos revealed, one question at a time. That's pretty much it. Angel City will consist entirely of Q&As with all kinds of Los Angeles denizens, from Hollywood types to barflies to artists (not that those descriptions are mutually exclusive, but you get the idea).
And who will be conducting said interviews? That would be me, Anna Scott, an L.A.-based journalist and dancing fool.
According to this FishbowlDC post, the Washington Post… … is closing their offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Three news aides will be let go but the reporters in those cities have been offered positions in Washington.
Effective date is December 31. Take link above for more details. For anyone who missed this, dated November 16: The following Playbill.com editors and writers can be reached at the following address and phone number:
Playbill.com
525 Seventh Ave.
Suite 1801
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 212-557-5757
Fax: 212-661-5866
Andrew Gans: Ext. 166
Ken Jones: Ext. 133
Adam Hetrick: Ext. 114
Ernio Hernandez: Ext. 112
Matt Blank: Ext. 140
This from FishbowlLA is also from November: Dennis Romero has been hired as news blogger for the LA Weekly. In the month since former blog editor Steven Mikulan parted ways with the paper, Romero has been a regular contributor to LA Daily. Editor Drex Heikes announced to the staff [in November] that Romero would join the paper as a full-time staffer.
