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? more ›

• Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons will be stepping down at the end of the year, letting Chicago businessman Sam Zell take over the company. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times.
• President Bush signed a huge Energy Bill yesterday, in hopes of "reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure."
• Looks like Sean Preston and, uh, the other little Chee-to whose name escapes us will have a little fucked up cousin very soon! Jamie Lynn Spears, following in her sister's dirty, unshod footsteps, got herself knocked up.
• California's population has grown by 11.5% since 2000 -- but the annual growth rate has slowed overall, possibly due to slower job growth: "Those who left... were fleeing an economy in which just 5,800 jobs per month were created -- down from more than 20,000 per month the previous year."
• Sean Penn's road-trip flick "Into the Wild" garnered four SAG Award nominations, including one Best Lead Actor nod for star Emile Hirsch. SAG has reached an agreement with the writers guild that will allow the ceremony to proceed as planned.
• This week's rainfall brings California's yearly total up to the seasonal norm. More relief may still be on the way.
• Approximately 25,000 residents in Northridge and other parts of the Valley were affected by power outages yesterday. Cal State Northridge shut down classes, but power has been restored to most customers.
• There may be hope yet for television in the New Year! Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart will return to cable on January 7th without their writing staff. Stewart and Colbert commented: ""We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence."

By week's end, LA is regularly littered with a handful of free rags. Combined, these publications put the Tribune Company's Spring Street operation LA Times to shame as far as reporting on the dozens of municipalities that make up this metropolis of more than 12 million people. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, let us know, or better yet drop it in the comments section below.... more ›

When Tribune Corp was met with two similar offers for its media conglomerate that includes the LA Times, the Chicago-based company decided that it felt better selling to a fellow Chicagoian, real estate billionaire Sam Zell than to a group of billionaires living here in LA. Although Zell will be ponying up just $300 million of the $8.2 billion deal, he will be calling the shots. And on his radar, incredibly is Google, and... more ›

By week's end, LA is regularly littered with a handful of free rags. Combined, these publications put the Tribune Company's Spring Street operation LA Times to shame as far as reporting on the dozens of municipalities that make up this metropolis of more than 12 million people. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, let us know, or better yet drop it in the comments section below.... more ›

UPDATE: The deal went down this morning according to the Tribune. It's liberation day. The LA Times reports:Billionaire real estate mogul Sam Zell has reached an agreement to buy Tribune Co. in a two-stage deal valued at $8.2 billion, or $34 a share, the company said this morning. The Tribune Company auction has been all show -- nice bids but no bite -- kind of like those "30 percent chance of rain" days when there's... more ›

By week's end, this town is regularly littered with a handful of free rags. Combined, these publications put the Tribune Company's Spring Street operation to shame as far as reporting on the dozens of municipalities that make up this metropolis of more than 12 million people. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, pretty please let us know, or better yet, drop it in the comments section... more ›

By week's end, Los Angeles is regularly littered with a handful of free rags. Combined, these publications put the Tribune Company's Spring Street operation to shame as far as reporting on the dozens of municipalities that make up this metropolis of more than 12 million people. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, pretty please let us know, or better yet, drop it in the comments section... more ›

David Hiller may be the most pessimistic man in the newspaper business. The Tribune Company exec who took over as publisher of the Times when Jeff Johnson was forced out for refusing to roll heads down Spring Street, appears neither ambitious, nor comfortable. His rambling rhetoric (listen below) largely expressed that he "just doesn't get it" and that even he can't wait to get his butt kicked back to Chi-town after the TribCo pinches itself... more ›

There have long been rumors about a possible Los Angeles/Southern California all-news TV channel. 24/7 local television news makes sense -- from both a regional and business perspective. Not just for the biggest metropolitan areas; Seattle/Portland has one, Boston too. more ›