July 24, 2010 News

RIP Norm Chandler Fox, writer and more. I worked frequently with him earlier in my career, and he was a lovely person. Obit HERE.


Tim Mangan, one of the best music writers around, and also one of the funniest, has his own blog now that the OC Register saw fit to discontinue its Arts Blog. Check it out HERE, and note the irony of THIS particular post announcing that OC Arts Blog was just named "Best Blog" by the O.C. Press Club.


From LAIst:

It's not often you hear about an online publication announcing its transition to print. Because it is -- although hackneyed -- usually the opposite: "print is dying." But that's not true. At all.

And to prove that point, downtown's most well-known blog this morning announced that it will begin printing a weekly. blogdowntown Weekly will join LA Weekly and other papers on downtown news racks on Thursday, August 5th. To start, 25,000 tabloid-size, full-color papers will be produced.

The 16-page or so publication will mainly feature calendar and lifestyle content, leaving developing news to the blog...

Full story HERE.


Thanks to Flo Selfman for passing this along, via Levine Breaking News:

Alex Raksin, who spent eleven years writing and editing book reviews for the L.A. Times and nine years as an editorial writer, joins the Center for Governmental Studies as Director of External Affairs.

July 19, 2010 News

Wall Street Journal Los Angeles Bureau Chief Gabriel Khan departs journalism for a post at USC, and his auto-reply email directs news inquiries at writer Ethan Smith.


According to The Wrap, Denise Martin, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and former television reporter at Variety, has been named West Coast news editor at TVGuide.com.


LA Observed reports this media news:

Jon Thurber is new books editor at L.A. Times... [he] had been one of the Los Angeles Times managing editors, but only for the past year or so. On the books desk he replaces David Ulin, who recently shifted to book critic.

Full story with LA Times memo HERE.

Editor and publisher Jerry Sullivan has been notifying supporters and others all day that the July 23 issue of the Los Angeles Garment & Citizen will be the weekly's last.

Details HERE.


Artist Kimberly Brooks (wife of Albert) is the new Huffington Post arts editor. Here "welcome" message is HERE.


Thanks to Omar Cunningham for passing this along...

"Anne Christensen is the new fashion director at Glamour, replacing Xanthipi Joannides who retired from full-time mag duty in June after three decades of service at Condé Nast."

June 14, 2010 News

BELATED HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO PR MEDIA MOVES!

Can it really be three years since I started it in May 2007? Apparently! Hope you like our "fresh, new look"!

Oh, and Happy Flag Day!


MEANWHILE…

This from Jewish Journal's Danielle Berrin, via email, who says she's…:

… no longer handling Circuit in order to focus more on my beat…

She says to use this jewishjournal.com address for Circuit submissions: circuit@


A recent New York Times INTERVIEW with new Town & Country Editor in Chief Stephen Drucker suggests some changes at the magazine.


Thanks to Lucy Pollak for reporting that Ernio Hernandez is leaving Playbill; his replacement is Matt Blank. @playbill.com = mblank


Media Bistro reports these LA Times metro writer assignment changes:

Phil Willon will become a roving state reporter based in Riverside, primarily covering the Inland Empire counties. Riverside and San Bernardino have always provided fertile ground for stories.

Patrick McDonnell will move to City Hall, bringing reporting skills honed over many years and several continents to bear on one of our most important beats.

Details HERE.


From Ad Age:

The Wall Street Journal is expanding again, this time with an additional weekly section of leisure and lifestyle content that will build out the nearly 5-year-old Saturday edition. The new section, for which former Domino magazine editor in chief Deborah Needleman is serving as a consultant, is slated to appear this fall.

"It's a newspaper section but with quite a magazine-y sensibility," Ms. Needleman said.

More info HERE.

May 24, 2010 News

I'm opening this post on a sad note in reporting the death of AP Theatre Critic Mike Kuchwara. LAT Theatre Critic Charles McNulty remembers him HERE.


From LA Times' Culture Monster blog a week or so ago:

Exit another theater critic, enter a theater insider.

Those are the stage directions coming from KCRW-FM (89.9). The Santa Monica-based public radio outlet announced Friday that the curtain has closed on James C. Taylor's seven-year run of four-minute weekly reviews and commentaries in the Thursday afternoon "Theatre Talk" spot. Opening Tuesday at 4:44 p.m. is a new take on the stage, "Opening the Curtain on L.A. Theatre," with Anthony Byrnes.

The idea is to keep the focus strictly on the Los Angeles stage, rather than the wider view "Theatre Talk" would sometimes take, said Matt Holzman, a longtime KCRW staff member who recently became director of program development after Jennifer Ferro succeeded Ruth Seymour as general manager in February.

Full story HERE, and LA Observed has additional news about changes in KCRW's lineup HERE.



Speaking of critics, I highly recommend reading Tim Mangan's hilarious COLUMN from over the weekend.


LA Times' Patrick Goldstein makes some salient points about laying off long-time journalists and replacing them with lower-paid staff a his recent column about Variety's announcement...

...that it's promoted Justin Chang and Peter Debruge to the post of senior film critics.

Read it in full HERE.


Got this a few weeks ago from Katherine Spiers:

Hi there,
... I've just joined a new wine blog as a contributor, so I'd love to be in the loop about wine events, new products, etc. THIS is the site

Reach her @gmail: katherinespiers


The Los Angeles offices of 944 Magazine/944 Media have moved to:
944 Media
9100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 700W
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

May 7, 2010 News

ALAN RICH MEMORIAL SERVICE, TRIBUTE BOOK


From Vanessa Butler:

We have decided on the date for Alan's memorial, Tuesday, May 25th, 7:30pm, at Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles.

It will be open to the public and we are doing a tribute book where I am accepting stories or memories of Alan.

If anyone wants to send me stories, I would need to have them by Monday, May 17th.

Vanessa's contact info: Vanessa.Butler -- [at] sbcglobal dot net

May 5, 2010 News

RIP Alan Rich

You've likely heard by now the news of Alan Rich's passing. He was, and I quote OC Register music critic Tim Mangan, "an institution of Southern California music criticism." Check out Tim's piece on Alan HERE. I also liked John Payne's LA Weekly piece HERE.


Speaking of LA Weekly, Ben Calderwood joins Jonathan Gold as food critic.

LA Observed has this from the staff memo…

Ben Calderwood started this week as our second food critic, joining Jonathan Gold, Amy Scattergood and Amy's lineup of strong freelancers to produce the best food coverage in Los Angeles.

…and more HERE.

You can find Ben on Twitter @humOrbot.


This from a press release a few weeks back:

Fine Arts LA is excited to announce that after a year of working dutifully toward building the site to what it has become, Nicole Campoy-Leffler (Editor-in-Chief) and Danyel Madrid (Editor-at-Large) are appointing a new Editor-in-Chief to take over all editorial responsibilities from within the team: Josh Morrison.

Nicole Campoy-Leffler will continue writing for the website and will maintain a managerial role at Fine Arts LA... Danyel Madrid is set to continue working with Fine Arts LA as a regular contributor...

Email at @fineartsla.com is josh


Got this auto reply from an email I'd sent to Mia McNeice at Variety:

Mia McNiece is no longer with Variety. For V page consideration, please email (@variety.com) Bob.Hofler or vpage

Per THIS from Fishbowl NY, Fiona Murray replaces Janelle Carrigan as Wall Street Journal features editor.


Thanks to Flo Selfman for passing these announcements along from Media Bistro's Revolving Door newsletter.

Todd McCarthy has been named film and festival critic and columnist at Indiewire. He had been former chief film critic and columnist at Variety.

Tim Griffin has been named editor-at-large at Artforum. He had been editor-in-chief there.

Michelle Kuo has been named editor-in-chief at Artforum. She had been senior editor there.

Erica Cerulo has been named senior editor at Lucky. She had been associate editor at Details.

Lauren Benet Stephenson has been named accessories market editor, news, at Women's Wear Daily. She had been associate online editor there.

March 30, 2010 News

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 News
www.centurycitynews.com
P.O.Box 69854
Los Angeles
CA 90069
Tel 310 597 1828
Fax 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 Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91105
Phone: (626) 583-5100
Fax: (626) 583-5101

And, 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.com


Take the LA Times' Jerry Hirsch off your food/business lists, and add him to auto, per THIS rather un-recent Times Reader's Rep memo


Lisa 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.