Ex-DirecTV head named LA Times publisher

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080816/ap_on_bi_ge/la_times_publisher_3

Makes perfect sense to me.

Would the last person leaving the LA Times please turn out the lights?

 

This about sums it up:

 

"No newspaper publishing experience" yet he steps in as publisher of the L.A. Times.

Now the big shots know what it feels like to pay dues in a profession for years, only to have the New York Times hand a major beat job to a 24-year-old.

Lots of publishers in small-to-mid-to-major markets, with years or even decades of experience, got snubbed when Zell hired this effin' stud Hartenstein. Welcome to our world, gas bags. ;D

 

The entire news seems to be a race to see which chain can destroy a major newspaper first. Winner gets stock options.

The basic power struggle comes down to this: The bosses for online sites throughout the industry have been mocking newspapers for years now, telling the suits that how much money they can save by getting rid of all those annoying writers & deskers. The contempt from there is amazing.

And good luck trying to make a suggestion to an online person. You're more likely to get a 1-on-1 with Coach K in his living room than get an online person to give even a civil response to the most basic suggestion. The smugness is amazing.

Of course, they think they don't really need writers anyway. At least not many of them. Once the ad model grows enough to support even a modest staff for a local web site, that's when you'll see newspapers begin to shut down all over the country.

So, of course the LA Times gets a boss with no newspaper experience. So what? We're already dead, lads. Just waiting for the coroner to verify.

 

So does this mean that when readers call in with inane questions about what's on TV, they'll go directly to the publisher?

 

No. But I'm sure people in LA are thrilled to be getting eight new sections a day devoted to home shopping.

 

Today a friend in PR asked about the LAT hiring.

"What the hell can a guy from DirecTV do for that newspaper?" he asked. "Why would they hire him? It said he had no experience."

I tried to tell him a little about what was going on in the industry, about the LAT's former publisher and the Staples Center brouhaha, and about Zell's Diabolically Unholy Minions wreaking havoc with the O-Sentinel and Sun-Sentinel redesigns, the layoffs and other events.

My friend just shook his head and asked how long I would stay in the industry.

Readers see these things. They know they're getting screwed, too, with lesser products.

 

Hartenstein created a new industry. Maybe he can recreate an old one. Give the guy a chance.

 

That's what people were saying about Zell a year or so ago (not at all looking to draw and quarter those who did, just saying it was a common optimistic theme).

No thanks. I'm sure this Direct TV jerkoff is a fucking useless asshole who will just further bleed the already bloodless corpse dry. Fuck him.

 

The other three finalists for the job were Apu, Flea and Jenn Sterger.

 

Pretty sure in 10 years Apu will have more kids than the LAT has subscribers.

 

I guess I'm just optimistic, but it seems that most of Zell's top hires have been people who have media experience just not newspaper experience.
Like Weymouth, the new publisher at the Washington Post and one of the Grahams, said: Zell might be a loon with Tourette's but he's right and he's at least trying.
That being said, I'm really glad I don't work for Tribune right now.