Results tagged “newspaper”

LA Times Circulation Down 11%, On Par With National Numbers

Figures are in this morning for newspaper circulation nationwide, and the numbers reflect the downward trend symptomatic of a changing media landscape. Here in Los Angeles, the Times' circulation for a six-month period ending September 30th, "was at 657,467 for the Monday-Friday run," notes LA Observed, which shows an 11.05% drop from the same period for 2008.

According to the Wall Street Journal, media mega-corp Tribune, parent of our Los Angeles Times, has sought legal counsel recently that would help the fumbling company "for a possible trip through bankruptcy court." The filing, some speculate, could happen as soon as this week. The WSJ explains:

Tribune has been on wobbly footing since last December, when real-estate mogul Sam Zell led a debt-backed deal to take the company private. Tribune so far has stayed ahead of its $12 billion in borrowings with the help of asset sales, but now dwindling profits are tightening the noose. The company's cash flow may not be enough to cover nearly $1 billion in interest payments this year, and Tribune owes a $512 million debt payment in June.
Zell is well-known for both his big wallet and his big mouth and for being unpopular with his employees. Tribune reps declined to comment on the rumors of bankruptcy.

The Sunday LA Times has a new addition--well, an old addition reinvented, sort of. It's LA, the new Los Angeles Times Magazine, but it's only available in print.

Twenty-four months, three LA Times editors gone, one reason: budget cuts. Jim O' Shea, editor of the LA Times was fired by Times Publisher David Hiller for failing to carry out $4 million in budget cuts at the paper. Apparently, Hiller wanted the money cut during the presidential campaign, a time when newspapers' budgets usually spike. This is the third editor to be fired over two years over the same budgetary issue. Do we sense a pattern here?

Just got an e-mail from NYTimes.com confirming the end of the two-year-old TimesSelect subscription experiment. Our friends in New York are thrilled about this and so are we. All the content fit to publish should be freely available. The e-mail isn't exactly a Steve Jobs-esque love letter, leaving us to wonder whether or not there will be rebates for those who recently plunked down $50 for the right to indulge in the opinions of Maureen...

At the LA Times building this morning, we were invited to speak to a group of arts organizations on Web 2.0, which, of course, includes blogging (this was not a Times sponsored event, rather they gave the use of their community room). It was fun and dandy and lots of people were still getting accustomed to the world of blogging. However, we found it funny and odd that internet access in the building was hard...

Blogebrity Editor Kyle Bunch sends in this tip that The Onion will bloom in LA next week in over 1,000 locations. Currently their website says that today is the day that the nation's best satire newspaper should hit the streets but, you know, the Internet's tubes are sometimes incorrect. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for any sightings of the actual rag out there on street corners, but if you find them before we...

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