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July 18, 2008
Predictions on LA Times' Future
Today on Kevin Roderick's weekly LA Observed spot on KCRW, he talks up the latest lay offs at the LA Times. In addition to "the paper also began saying goodbye to 150 editors, reporters, designers, photographers and other journalists." The publisher was also fired.
And that's not all as Roderick predicts that this was not the end of it: "the cruel truth is that this week was probably just a mid-step on the way to a Los Angeles Times you have even less reason to read. In print or on the Web. With less ability to penetrate deeply on much of anything. It's especially galling because the Times once had such lofty aspirations, and for another key reason. The Times sits at the top of the news food chain in LA. What it doesn't report, the TV stations and the smaller papers usually don't report either. And that's just scary."
Earlier this morning, we found a blogger that is reaching out to find what journalists are doing after leaving the Times. She believes there is life after institutional death, if that actually happens.
Photo by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
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damnit i knew i picked a bad time to become a journalism major...
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Only if you want to make money.
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I think what K-Rod meant to say at the end was "What [the Times] doesn't report, the TV stations and the smaller papers usually don't report either. And that's just scary why I read LAist all the time."
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The problem is that Sam Zell doesn't understand journalisim.
For Zell it's all about making money, but to make money in journalisim you have to invest in your staff or you lose circulation, to lose circulation is to lose money.
My prediction;
Sam Zell will run the L.A. Times into the ground. He will have to sell it off at a bargain basement price. It will be bought up by a conglomerate of wealthy Angelenos who care about having a world class local newspaper, and The Los Angeles Times will make a come back.
I hope for the sake of the journalists that just got sacked that it doesn't take very long.
Ta ta Sammy!
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This will seem crazy, but what the LA Times needs is some...competition. When the Herald was around, we- a lot of us- bought both, a few times a week, just to see who had what, who missed what. If I did that - a crappy student with a half-mohawk- others must've, too.
failing that, I hope the 'wealthy Angelenos' thing happens sooner than later.