LANG merge begins

[TigerVols]

One editor, for the price of three. Because the Valley and the LBC are so much alike.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/10/giuliana-rancic-surgery-breast-cancer-lumpectomy-ivf-bill-rancic.html

 

[Fran Curci]

wrong link?

 

[Mr. X]

Try this, http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2011/10/lang_papers_begin_the_ine.php#more

 

[Fran Curci]

Probably not much left of the smaller papers, anyway. LANG now officially makes them bureaus.

 

[MileHigh]

Yup. This was as inevitable as a sunset after the same stuff was announced with BANG.

So sad, but not surprising.

 

[fishwrapper]

As usual, what MileHigh said.
I've worked for this MF-er ... twice. Even in plush times, it was awful.
If you're surprised by any of this, the sun coming up in the morning will give you chills, too.

 

[rpmmutant]

Talked to a LANG photographer last night. They are waiting to be consolidated too. So sad. I would say the newsroom is a shell of what it used to be, but even the shell in crumbling.

 

[MileHigh]

SoCal is so different. There is a HUGE gulf of difference among the Valley, South Bay, Long Beach, OCQ, San Gabriel Valley, the I.E.

Hell, the I.E. alone is a massive difference -- just the 20-mile triangle from San Berdoo to Rancho Cucamonga to Riverside.

One size does not fit all. Once a great newspaper market, now just put together with masking tape, smoke and mirrors.

Again, so sad.

 

[Tucsondriver]

One of the suits who just quit BANG has some interesting parting shots. Jeff DeBalko, a money guy who I'm pretty sure none of us have ever heard of, suggests the company's problems go beyond what we're all facing adapting to the digital age...

"My 71-year-old mother called me a while back and told me that she was calling to cancel her local paper (one of ours). When I asked why, she said, ‘They keep raising the rates on me. I don’t care about the money so much but there is nothing in the paper any more about my local community. They used to write about people I know, places I know, and businesses nearby. Now there is none of that.’ Nothing speaks louder to the failure of local media than a long, slow disconnect from the communities they serve.”


http://sfppc.blogspot.com/2011/10/bangs-top-financial-executive-quits.html

 

[sportsnut]

SoCal is so different. There is a HUGE gulf of difference among the Valley, South Bay, Long Beach, OCQ, San Gabriel Valley, the I.E.

Hell, the I.E. alone is a massive difference -- just the 20-mile triangle from San Berdoo to Rancho Cucamonga to Riverside.

One size does not fit all. Once a great newspaper market, now just put together with masking tape, smoke and mirrors.

Again, so sad.

I say yes, you are right that Southern California is very different but that does not mean that LANG will shut down most of the papers and make the LA Daily News the main newspaper and then just launch special 8-16 page local editions for the I.E. etc. I just don't see them launching a So Cal Tribune or anything like that.

 

[LanceyHoward]

SoCal is so different. There is a HUGE gulf of difference among the Valley, South Bay, Long Beach, OCQ, San Gabriel Valley, the I.E.

Hell, the I.E. alone is a massive difference -- just the 20-mile triangle from San Berdoo to Rancho Cucamonga to Riverside.

One size does not fit all. Once a great newspaper market, now just put together with masking tape, smoke and mirrors.

Again, so sad.

I say yes, you are right that Southern California is very different but that does not mean that LANG will shut down most of the papers and make the LA Daily News the main newspaper and then just launch special 8-16 page local editions for the I.E. etc. I just don't see them launching a So Cal Tribune or anything like that.

Why not? Isn't that pretty much what has happened in the Bay Area? I am not defending further consolidation, but I see no reason that MediaNews will modify its behavior if advertising continues to decline.

 

[MileHigh]

SoCal is so different. There is a HUGE gulf of difference among the Valley, South Bay, Long Beach, OCQ, San Gabriel Valley, the I.E.

Hell, the I.E. alone is a massive difference -- just the 20-mile triangle from San Berdoo to Rancho Cucamonga to Riverside.

One size does not fit all. Once a great newspaper market, now just put together with masking tape, smoke and mirrors.

Again, so sad.

I say yes, you are right that Southern California is very different but that does not mean that LANG will shut down most of the papers and make the LA Daily News the main newspaper and then just launch special 8-16 page local editions for the I.E. etc. I just don't see them launching a So Cal Tribune or anything like that.

Why not? Isn't that pretty much what has happened in the Bay Area? I am not defending further consolidation, but I see no reason that MediaNews will modify its behavior if advertising continues to decline.

Agree with this. They're moving in the direction already of doing what they did in NoCal and implementing it in SoCal. It would be more surprising at this point if it didn't happen.

 

[sportsnut]

SoCal is so different. There is a HUGE gulf of difference among the Valley, South Bay, Long Beach, OCQ, San Gabriel Valley, the I.E.

Hell, the I.E. alone is a massive difference -- just the 20-mile triangle from San Berdoo to Rancho Cucamonga to Riverside.

One size does not fit all. Once a great newspaper market, now just put together with masking tape, smoke and mirrors.

Again, so sad.

I say yes, you are right that Southern California is very different but that does not mean that LANG will shut down most of the papers and make the LA Daily News the main newspaper and then just launch special 8-16 page local editions for the I.E. etc. I just don't see them launching a So Cal Tribune or anything like that.

Why not? Isn't that pretty much what has happened in the Bay Area? I am not defending further consolidation, but I see no reason that MediaNews will modify its behavior if advertising continues to decline.

Agree with this. They're moving in the direction already of doing what they did in NoCal and implementing it in SoCal. It would be more surprising at this point if it didn't happen.

So they will launch the SoCal Tribune or make every other city a insert into Daily News?

 

[LanceyHoward]

SoCal is so different. There is a HUGE gulf of difference among the Valley, South Bay, Long Beach, OCQ, San Gabriel Valley, the I.E.

Hell, the I.E. alone is a massive difference -- just the 20-mile triangle from San Berdoo to Rancho Cucamonga to Riverside.

One size does not fit all. Once a great newspaper market, now just put together with masking tape, smoke and mirrors.

Again, so sad.

I say yes, you are right that Southern California is very different but that does not mean that LANG will shut down most of the papers and make the LA Daily News the main newspaper and then just launch special 8-16 page local editions for the I.E. etc. I just don't see them launching a So Cal Tribune or anything like that.

Why not? Isn't that pretty much what has happened in the Bay Area? I am not defending further consolidation, but I see no reason that MediaNews will modify its behavior if advertising continues to decline.

Agree with this. They're moving in the direction already of doing what they did in NoCal and implementing it in SoCal. It would be more surprising at this point if it didn't happen.

So they will launch the SoCal Tribune or make every other city a insert into Daily News?

That's my guess. What in the corporate history of MediaNews would lead to another conclusion?

 

[Editude]

It seems quaint now that the Riverside and San Bernardino papers for years wouldn't go into each other's counties/territories, even though the offices were about 10 miles apart. San Bernardino and Ontario/Pomona, which are now merged, had the same deal with keeping to either side of Interstate 15.

 

[MileHigh]

It seems quaint now that the Riverside and San Bernardino papers for years wouldn't go into each other's counties/territories, even though the offices were about 10 miles apart. San Bernardino and Ontario/Pomona, which are now merged, had the same deal with keeping to either side of Interstate 15.

Yup. I was there when it happened and there were lots of riled-up people when Riverside crossed the county line in 1997.

Then doomsday hit April 1, 1999 (an appropriate date) when Gannett packed up and left after 30 years when it sold San Bernardino to MediaNews. Hasn't been the same since and the predictions of calamity have come true -- and then some.

 

[sportsnut]

It seems quaint now that the Riverside and San Bernardino papers for years wouldn't go into each other's counties/territories, even though the offices were about 10 miles apart. San Bernardino and Ontario/Pomona, which are now merged, had the same deal with keeping to either side of Interstate 15.

It will be a sad day for Southern California and the newspaper business when this happens. But, it seems that it's the business model of MediaNews etc. I am really curious to see when a tabloid like the New York Post arrives in SoCal and the Los Angeles market.

Yup. I was there when it happened and there were lots of riled-up people when Riverside crossed the county line in 1997.

Then doomsday hit April 1, 1999 (an appropriate date) when Gannett packed up and left after 30 years when it sold San Bernardino to MediaNews. Hasn't been the same since and the predictions of calamity have come true -- and then some.

 

[gravehunter]

...and LANG people are still very interested in adding the OC Register to their list of So Cal bureaus.

 

[sportsnut]

...and LANG people are still very interested in adding the OC Register to their list of So Cal bureaus.

I got to say that I enjoy the OC Register and have worked for them covering high school football. But, I do not see Freedom Communication selling anytime soon.

 

[MileHigh]

Freedom/OCR have been on the market for months. It's well-known that MediaNews has been talking with them but they haven't closed the deal. Tribune also interested in the OCR.