Next up: LA Times

[HanSenSE]

Per Poynter, but this one starts upstairs:
Tronc purges senior leadership at the Los Angeles Times

 

[BTExpress]

Might be a whole bunch of Tribune-, er, tronc-wide things shaking.

Hockey writer in Fort Lauderdale was laid off today.

 

[DanOregon]

I've got to say, usually you try and get the people heading out the door to do the laying off - and that has to be the least BS corporate-talk story about a changing of the guard at a newspaper I've ever read.
It's never fun writing a story about a new top editor coming in because you KNOW it might be the only story he or she reads of yours ever.

 

[Bronco77]

Might be a whole bunch of Tribune-, er, tronc-wide things shaking.

Hockey writer in Fort Lauderdale was laid off today.

The outdoors writer (a 27-year veteran of the paper) was shown the door last month, as was the assistant sports editor in charge of high schools (about four weeks before the first HS football games). Publisher says the paper's workforce will be cut 50 percent over the next three years if revenue trends continue.

 

[BTExpress]

A paper that once had more than 50 people in its sports department alone.

 

[steveu]

My God, you're not kidding. Those late 1990s and early-mid 2000s Sun-Sentinel papers were mind-boggling. The sports section was fantastic.

 

[WriteThinking]

Levinsohn will hold an all-hands meeting at 3 p.m. with Kirk to discuss the future of the newsroom, he said in a memo to staffers Monday.

What I wouldn't have given to have sat in that meeting with all the L.A. Times staffers.

 

[BTExpress]

My God, you're not kidding. Those late 1990s and early-mid 2000s Sun-Sentinel papers were mind-boggling. The sports section was fantastic.

There was a Sunday sports section in October 1997 that was 180 columns, spanning three sections (World Series, College Football and regular Sports). The equivalent of 30 open pages. And I didn't have a thing to do with it (was working on the Heat preview section).

 

[Bronco77]

The tronc digital transformation touted so highly in that cheesy, unintentionally funny video must be hitting a few speed bumps.

I see that one of the "co-stars" of that video recently left tronc. And the other, based "business of journalism" stories and my acquaintances with tronc newspapers, no longer wields much influence. She's still collecting her hefty paycheck, at least for now.

 

[Just the facts ma am]

So they fired a reporter who was married to an ousted editor for no other reason than the marriage. They also fired Magaraj's admin aide. That's cold.

Reporter Jill Leovy and admin assistant also let go by LA Times

 

[MileHigh]

There was a Sunday sports section in October 1997 that was 180 columns, spanning three sections (World Series, College Football and regular Sports). The equivalent of 30 open pages. And I didn't have a thing to do with it (was working on the Heat preview section).

I'll need to dig out my 2003 Herald the Sunday after the Marlins won the World Series. It's a blur all these years later (other than the headline) and I bet we were damn close to that. That was a great rivalry to be a part of.

 

[steveu]

Was a lot of fun to be in Miami for the 2003 opener on a spring trip... S-S and the Herald were fairly big papers every day (except Monday, but no big whoop) and Palm Beach was pretty good too. Those were the days.

 

[BTExpress]

L.A. Times Masthead Massacre Capped a Month of Newsroom Turmoil

 

[FileNotFound]

L.A. Times Masthead Massacre Capped a Month of Newsroom Turmoil

Having read that, it sounds like Tronc corporate did something dangerously close to the right thing.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Wait a minute, so this Levinsohn guy is the same guy whose idea it was for News Corp. to buy MySpace for $580 million? The same MySpace that lost 95 percent of its value in the ensuing 5 years or so?

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Bronco77]

Wait a minute, so this Levinsohn guy is the same guy whose idea it was for News Corp. to buy MySpace for $580 million? The same MySpace that lost 95 percent of its value in the ensuing 5 years or so?

Levinsohn was an executive with what now is known as CBSSports.com during its SportsLine USA days, and word is that he checked off quite a few "boss from hell" boxes -- lots of micromanagement, second-guessing, bluster and angry late-night phone calls.

 

[TigerVols]

Levinsohn was an executive with what now is known as CBSSports.com during its SportsLine USA days, and word is that he checked off quite a few "boss from hell" boxes -- lots of micromanagement, second-guessing, bluster and angry late-night phone calls.

So, you're saying he's next in line to be WH Comms Director?

 

[Joe Williams]

So they fired a reporter who was married to an ousted editor for no other reason than the marriage. They also fired Magaraj's admin aide. That's cold.

Reporter Jill Leovy and admin assistant also let go by LA Times

No fan of good people losing jobs. Dumping someone for being a spouse is wrong -- as wrong as hiring someone for being a spouse, which I've seen countless times in newsrooms across the country. Media outlet wants to hire one person, it suddenly has to become a package deal to get the desired hire to move, and a less competent or less needed spouse gets a position, often one beyond his or her qualifications. Rank and file have to just suck it. So a little turnabout might stink, but the scales aren't close to being balanced for all the newsroom "+1" arrangements.

 

[DanOregon]

From what I've seen of Digital people parachuting into the newspaper industry - it's an awkward fit. How many digital companies are still surviving on VC money and haven't yet turned an actual profit? They come in, realize the corporate culture, daily deadlines and expectations aren't something they are comfortable in, then head back to the digital world.

It always seems that the newspaper execs don't fully understand the digital world, and the digital world people don't fully understand the newspaper world.

Think about it, if newspapers were well situated for a digital transformation, wouldn't they be purchased by far healthier digital enterprises?

 

[Bronco77]

Dumping someone for being a spouse is wrong -- as wrong as hiring someone for being a spouse, which I've seen countless times in newsrooms across the country. Media outlet wants to hire one person, it suddenly has to become a package deal to get the desired hire to move, and a less competent or less needed spouse gets a position, often one beyond his or her qualifications.

In the past 25 years, I've seen only one situation in which both the husband and wife hired simultaneously were really top-notch -- and they got divorced during their time at the paper. The husband, one of best assistant city editors I've ever known, died of cancer a few years after the divorce. The wife, an investigative reporter who left the paper a few months ago, wrote a series that won a Pulitzer Prize.