L.A. Times buyouts

I was in Long Beach when Singleton took over. It was a wonderful time. They made us all 'interview' for our jobs. My interview was a joke. The clown doing the interview said 'So you cover high school sports.' I said 'Yep.' He said 'I like high school sports.' I said 'Yep.' Then he asked if I had any questions of him. I said 'Nope' and the interview was over.
Once that asshole took over the paper we each called into our manager's office and given a piece of paper with our new salary. Mine was about a 25 percent pay cut. If we didn't sign the paper immediately we were escorted out by armed guards. My editor spent a lot of the day in tears.
Like I said it was a wonderful time. Singleton is an ass.

 

It was San Gabriel ... our pay was already so low we didn't have to go through the indignities inflicted upon the Long Beach people and others around the country who Lean Dean hosed. A friend who went through the Long Beach fiasco said that during his interview, the only question he was asked was "What are your favorite restaurants near the office?"

 

Armed guards?

 

I was at a place once where they pushed a wheel-chair bound woman out to the parking lot after refusing to let her even use the phone to call a family member to come and drive her home.

 

I don't think there are too many people out there with anything good to say about any of the newspaper chains...

A few years ago, Tribune Co. would have been the runaway winner... Not anymore....

 

With most papers' buyouts, you can't get a job with any other paper in the chain, including freelancing, for one year.

 

Couldn't a radical change in company structure give grounds for Zell to withdraw from the deal?

Doesn't he "sort of" have to be in on everything from here on out?

 

I'm sure -- well, as sure as I can be not being there -- that proposed cutbacks were all part of the ongoing discussions before the deal was done.

 

Ding. Ding. Ding. $200 millioncompany wide, according to the WSJ.