Doug Krikorian out

[Rudy Petross]

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2011/10/doug_krikorian_set_adrift.php

 

[SF_Express]

Long before this, the condition of the Long Beach paper -- despite some excellent people going through there -- has long been a mystery to me. I guess it's just because the city is kind of in an odd spot in the shadow of L.A. or whatever.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

It was a really good paper at one point, surprisingly good even, before they consolidated with the Daily News... I know that was a long, long time ago...

 

[MileHigh]

Long Beach definitely was once a great paper. The only surprise about Doug E. gone is that it didn't happen years earlier.

LANG is a nuclear wasteland these days and the talk is there's going to be lots more consolidation.

 

[Rudy Petross]

Yeah whatever you thought of Doug's columns, the guy was an icon in Long Beach. It does surprise me how that paper has lasted this long.

 

[Editude]

It was a feisty product that covered a feisty city. Its prep coverage was thorough, and the Best of the West lists set agendas. The office was a dump, though.

 

[SF_Express]

It was a feisty product that covered a feisty city. Its prep coverage was thorough, and the Best of the West lists set agendas. The office was a dump, though.

I had to take a Knight-Ridder test there once, and yes, I can attest to that.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I remember someone telling me that at one point (I have no idea if this is still the case) that the Press-Telegram is the only paper to travel with a volleyball team for every single game.

 

[SoCalDude]

I remember someone telling me that at one point (I have no idea if this is still the case) that the Press-Telegram is the only paper to travel with a volleyball team for every single game.

I seem to recall Gordie Verrell being on the road a lot with the Long Beach State volleyball team after -- in another horrible PT decision -- Verrell was pulled off the Dodgers beat.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I remember someone telling me that at one point (I have no idea if this is still the case) that the Press-Telegram is the only paper to travel with a volleyball team for every single game.

Women's volleyball? On the road? Same hotel?

Not a bad beat assignment.

 

[Drip]

If you can make it through the holidays....

 

[da man]

I remember someone telling me that at one point (I have no idea if this is still the case) that the Press-Telegram is the only paper to travel with a volleyball team for every single game.

Women's volleyball? On the road? Same hotel?

Not a bad beat assignment.

So to speak.

 

[HanSenSE]

I remember someone telling me that at one point (I have no idea if this is still the case) that the Press-Telegram is the only paper to travel with a volleyball team for every single game.

I seem to recall Gordie Verrell being on the road a lot with the Long Beach State volleyball team after -- in another horrible PT decision -- Verrell was pulled off the Dodgers beat.

I recall him covering Long Beach State men's hoops as well and wondering "WTF?" As for travels with the women's team, aside from the trips to Stockton and Davis, the Big West is a day-trippers league.

 

[Fran Curci]

John Futch might have been at Long Beach, on and off, for decades.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

The thing that strikes me is that the L.A. Herald Examiner folded 22 years ago and the other major papers -- LAT, OCR, LADN, Long Beach -- hired most of the HerEx sports staff. As I recall, they didn't want to waste the chance to pick up name-brand bylines. Observation 1 is you wouldn't see that much of a hiring scramble anymore in any market. Observation 2 is that Long Beach considered itself a major player in L.A. sports journalism then, to the extent that it hired two or three "name" bylines from a paper that had been roughly twice its size. Was never a fan of Krikorian's column, but I thought at the time that Long Beach showed some sass by hiring an established column-logo from an L.A. paper.

 

[SoCalDude]

The thing that strikes me is that the L.A. Herald Examiner folded 22 years ago and the other major papers -- LAT, OCR, LADN, Long Beach -- hired most of the HerEx sports staff. As I recall, they didn't want to waste the chance to pick up name-brand bylines. Observation 1 is you wouldn't see that much of a hiring scramble anymore in any market. Observation 2 is that Long Beach considered itself a major player in L.A. sports journalism then, to the extent that it hired two or three "name" bylines from a paper that had been roughly twice its size. Was never a fan of Krikorian's column, but I thought at the time that Long Beach showed some sass by hiring an established column-logo from an L.A. paper.

Bob Keisser was their better, if not best, Long Beach hire from the Her-Ex. He is as good as they come.
I have no idea why they handed the keys to the vault to Krikorian, who, somehow, moved UP through the ranks at the Her-Ex despite not being very good at what he was doing, i.e. couldn't work desk so they gave him a beat, couldn't cover a beat so they made him a columnist (possible exception was boxing, he was pretty in tune on that).