Takedown of OC Register owner Aaron Kushner

Bumped back to top rather than a new thread started...

Longtime OCR writer Mark Whicker has caught on with LANG. His first column appears Sunday on the Dodgers' TV situation in Southern California.

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20140704/mark-whicker-dodgers-tv-deal-has-turned-into-a-disappearing-act

 

Just think, those kids in San Diego whose family got slaughtered in the desert will never know the joy of a full cable TV schedule.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I did see that when I originally posted this, but I'm happy someone landed on their own two feet out of OCR.

 

Just what L.A. readers need -- another tired column concerning SportsNet LA. Maybe columnists should tell readers how to avoid MLB.tv blackouts.

If you read satellite TV message boards, dozens of customers are canceling DirecTV and Dish. Dish has already abandoned the New York City market for local sports. DirecTV also is working on a new deal with ESPN that expires this year. It still hasn't picked up the PAC-12 Network.

 

This refers to a horrible column Whicker wrote nearly 5 years ago. Unfortunately for Whicker and the OCR, I wasn't working that night or this wouldn't have happened.
That said, having Whicker leave is the biggest loss to the OCR of about 100 staffers who have departed this year. Whicker could always be counted on to produce a centerpiece-worthy column on a slow day. He would write a column on the most important events and not duplicate the game story. He filled in on coverage that fell through the beat structure. He could cover a golf tournament and produce a gamer, notes and column every day of the tournament and have it all done within an hour or two of the final shot.
The OCR should not have let Whicker walk away.

 

Having finally read the link in the OP leaves me with this question ...

What if people no longer WANT a heavy dose of local, community news? Maybe the reason newspaper ad revenue is spiraling toward nothingness is advertisers know people ages 50 and younger don't care about city council news, local sports, even local crime.

I saw a few issues of the OCR this spring and they absolutely bulged with Orange County news ... and looked great doing it. Apparently two years of that wasn't enough to move the numbers out of the red.

Maybe hyperlocal coverage is not what the average U.S. citizen of 2014 wants anymore. If so, newspapers really are doomed.

 

You are correct. Whicker had a really, really bad column with the "left the yard" piece, but there is no question to his value. He was a machine at the OCR. Pumped out more columns a week than anyone else there.

 

Here's the latest ... LA Register ready to fold.


http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2014/09/la_weekly_says_rumors_are.php





The people who took buyouts and are still on the payroll did not get their direct deposits, which should have hit the banks Friday morning. An OCR finance dept. employee had to call them all. Reportedly, the check were to be available for pickup at the Santa Ana office by 3 p.m. or could be sent through snail mail. Reportedly, a computer glitch tanked the direct deposit. Probably, there wasn't enough money.
In other news, Mark Whicker is replacing Jill Painter at LANG (LA Daily News, et al.)

 

No group is more gullible than journalists.