Former Fishwrap of Record Screws Yet Another Pooch

Another pleasant Sunday in the newsroom...


Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email

I thought we did this story eighteen months ago. No, we did, but...it's true again!

Times' top editor takes a push, likely a soon-to-be paid one, off a short but deep pier.

The top editor of The Los Angeles Times has been forced out for resisting newsroom budget cuts, executives at the paper said Sunday, marking the fourth time in less than three years that the highest-ranking editor or the publisher has left for that reason.

That would be editor James O'Shea. Joker Publisher David Hiller says in the fishwrap's own cover:

In an interview, Hiller disputed that O'Shea had been fired, saying that his exit was part of a plan involving senior level and organizational changes to be enacted after Zell took control of the company. "Think of it as the changes made at the start of a new presidential term," Hiller said. "In the context of these changes, Jim and I decided we no longer saw things the same way about how to take the company forward."

For his part, O'Shea said, "It is true that we did not share a common vision for the future of the LA Times. From my perspective he made the decision to terminate me. I cannot comment further without talking to my attorney."

Well, doesn't that just sound like a velvet divorce? Four successive editors have now left your Los Angeles Times, former fishwrap of record to the City of Los Angeles, over budget cuts, and this one feels he can't even talk without legal representation.

The NYTimes says that weekday circ at the paper has dropped to around 800,000, but true circ is widely rumored to be far below that. The paper's circ appeared to hold steady last year, but at what level, nobody really knows.

O'Shea had come from the Chicago Tribune, and was of retirement age anyway. Next!