Shrinking to greatness, bicoastally
Joseph Mailander a guy in la • elsewhere • email
Missing in all the Valentine's Day effervescense yesterday was the fact that the Times---The New York Times---is on the verge of potentially cutting even more newsroom employees than our own former fishwrap of record is.
Those of you who depend on it as your artisan-level fishwrap of choice should not panic, as the Times of NY is still guaranteed to employ more newsroom personnel than the Times of LA.
But did you see these words from new LAT ed Russ Stanton at that fabled westside blog, Spring Street Revisited?
Really--what is that supposed to mean? That the print version of the paper should give their readers even less? Give readers the right stories, and the right reasons to read them, and they will find the time to read, even as they find time to mess around on the Internet all day.
Missing in all the Valentine's Day effervescense yesterday was the fact that the Times---The New York Times---is on the verge of potentially cutting even more newsroom employees than our own former fishwrap of record is.
After years of resisting the newsroom cuts that have hit most of the industry, The New York Times will bow to growing financial strain and eliminate about 100 newsroom jobs this year, the executive editor said Thursday.
Those of you who depend on it as your artisan-level fishwrap of choice should not panic, as the Times of NY is still guaranteed to employ more newsroom personnel than the Times of LA.
But did you see these words from new LAT ed Russ Stanton at that fabled westside blog, Spring Street Revisited?
In print, we must address our most nagging and long-term problem: in canceling the paper, our former readers continue to tell us -- week in and week out, year in and year out -- that they don't have time to read everything we give them each day.
Really--what is that supposed to mean? That the print version of the paper should give their readers even less? Give readers the right stories, and the right reasons to read them, and they will find the time to read, even as they find time to mess around on the Internet all day.
Labels: a guy in la, LA Times
Posted by Joseph F. Mailander @ 2/15/2008 12:02:00 PM
21 Comments:
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How many to see a trend on this blog?
Joe M. - hates the Los Angeles Times newspaper (oops fishwarp of record) But his post consists mostly of links to it's stories. Perhaps it's "Pen-it" envy?
Mayor Sam - hates the mayor
Zuma - knows more than the mayor and city council, and knows they are shady but offers little hard evidence to prove his suspicions.
Joe M does have Times envy. He wants to be a Times writer but he's just a blogger.
I think what they were trying to say is that the Times might be more marketable if it were more like USA Today newspaper. That is a short brief summary of major news items.
I personally feel that printed papers may be dead soon. I get the Times every day but I've already read the news items on Google news before the paper arrives. I see the same stories. I do like the other items, i.e. home, food, calendar, exclusive in depth articles.
Of course, if I didn't need newspaper to line my animal cages, I might not get the printed paper any more. I'd just read it online.
Uh, morons, Joe is often featured in the Times. What do you two anonymous no-nothings have to show for yourselves?
Joe is not often "featured" in the Times. Give me a break. He is not an LA Times writer. He has no latimes email address, doesn't get paid to work for them. If you're talking op-ed pieces, big deal. Daniel Guss, Ed Boks, Director of the zoo all get op-ed pieces. They ain't writers either.
poster 4, we all know you're joe
The L. A. Times should have been in the forefront on proposition “S” educating the voters, as how this proposition was going to affect them. Instead to help the voters they keep quiet allowing the Mayor to deceive the public. The Mayor spent millions to publicize a lie, where was the L. A. Times publicizing the truth?
Please...I need the LA Times...its the best buy of the week...I have a puppy.
12:31 pm, hard evidence against DWP will be provided mid-April in court, for starters.
Certain LAUSD schools will be having their "wiggle room" cut back.
A Federal Judge ruled that the City was shady and illegal at Venice Beach.
Council had to start enforcing vacancy rates after city attorney told them they weren't (After ZD told them they weren't.)
DA investigation into East LA Housing. (Told yo azz!)
Special Event Fee waiver discovery...BUSTED!
AND, I don't have a team of attorney to research hard evidence on every issue -- and the corrupt politicians have the best of the best covering tracks. But don't get too cocky their about "evidence", son. That kinda karma comes back to bite you on the nose.
Non-profit abuse, affordable housing abuse/LAANE, Charter/LAUSD money scam, DWP, dumb smart-growth...
Any attorneys want to contact ZD, we can go after them. Otherwise, consider my thread to be messages in a bottle to say, "Anyone but Antonio". The guy puts the Enron to shame! (The final chapter on Antonio has not been written. It ain't gonna be on a good note. A lot of his former supporters are going to have their triumphant headlines. NOT EVEN THE TIMES WILL BE ABLE TO KEEP IT OFF THE FRONT PAGE.) I guess we will see.
I recently cancelled the paper which I got 3-4 days a week. I was in grad school, and it was hard to keep up so I had a stack from the last month. But that wasn't the reason I cancelled. Even though I got the news online, it used to be worth going through the actual paper for interesting, substantial things I may have missed. Then I realized that really, the paper had nothing to offer me. Also, looking back, I was appalled at the so called "reporting" of a local issue I knew alot about (Home Depot!).
The paper makes you go through 2-3 people when you cancel, all asking you why? When I stated that the quality of the reporting and writing deteriorated, they seemed to balk, and I could see why many people would rather say they don't have time and be done. I know probably alot of people say it's the time issue because they said oh.. you can have it for only 3, or 2 or 1 day a week for $xx amt thinking you'll change your mind, but they just didn't get that it was the quality of the product not the quantity that was the problem.
Owners of papers still want the double digit profit returns of yesteryear, even with the web. They are realizing too late,like the music industry, that their business model has not changed to accomodate technology or increased customer's expectations.
Many people want the serendipidous find, thus trips to the bookstore, or a read through the paper is valuable. Sometimes you don't know what you want until you see it. Unfortunately, the Times does not have anything I want anymore.
Top ten uses for the LA Times.
10. Puppy wee wee pads
9. Streak-free window cleaning, works great
8. Insulation for homeless people clothing
7. Homeless people TP
6. Put through shredder, bedding for hamsters
5. Sell tax "reduction" like prop S
4. LA Times is safe enough to eat, no joke
3. Recycle into paper to print NY Times
2. Run op-eds for Joe so he can feel like a "writer"
1. Spread false positive PR about the Mayor and all Departments
I went to the eco fair before Xmas. The Times was there. They were gift wrapping presents for people for free with the LA Times. Even they know people don't want to read it any more. It was the current day's paper, not old ones!
I know this is off topic, but you don't have a story on this posted, so I'll ask it here. Did I miss something big? Did "something" big and important finally happen to Bush? For hours channel 9 has been running coverage of memorial, motorcade and graveside service (it's STILL going on) with endless white limos and cars and what looks like EVERY cop car and motorcycle that LAPD has along with EVERY LAPD cop!!!
Are they burying the "President"??? Why is he being buried in L.A.??? Why was his service in South Central??? Is the Federal government covering the cost of all this??? This would sure be a great time for the criminals to run amok in L.A.!!!
Unbelievable!!!!!!!
Joe is not often "featured" in the Times. Give me a break. He is not an LA Times writer. He has no latimes email address, doesn't get paid to work for them. If you're talking op-ed pieces, big deal.
For the record, I like writing op-eds. When I write one, I am beholden to nobody, which is the way I like it. When I blog, I am beholden to nobody, which is the way I like it. I have never ever wanted to be on staff at any newspaper. I wouldn't say I'm often "featured" either, but on the other hand...my first op-ed appeared in the paper in 1981. I've worked with a lot of editors there on pieces over the years.
So enough of the lies, anonymous. I criticize the Times because I grew up with it and I care about it, not because I want a job there. I care about it because without it the town more easily gets gamed by the people who own the Councilpeople. I care about it because I live here and have for fifty-one years.
And it does look like it can benefit from criticism. The same things I say here, I don't hesitate to say to editors there. My main message is this: the Times seems bent on pissing off ordinary citizens and gratifying elites, and the formula for success in print journalism is the precise opposite of that.
Four editors in three years...hell, MayorSam offers more stability than that. Maybe I'm not so far off as you think.
How about your own blog about the fishwrap and give the rest of us a break.
Joe,
Don't let that mealy-mouthed Anony-Mouse spread false and vile rumors about you. We all know you're a great writer with years of stupendous local stories.
I often have to battle Anony-Mouse against his vile racist comments against blacks which he call "mayates", lazy and condescending civil service employees.
The food sections are often pretty good, and Health usually has at least one article. I rip out some of these and put them in boxes for food or health, a habit started long ago -- it keeps me from having to use up paper and ink to print them online.
The weekly food coupons are popular, especially if you're feeding a family and not buying boutique bottled water to impress the other singles in line. They're often more extensive than what you get online, and less bother and paper and ink.
By "doublestacking" as they call it, which is getting stuff on sale -- you get the flyers in the Wed paper -- I can cut a $200 bill down to $75 or even less. Some items are even free. People behind me and the checkers are often amazed, and it's fun to get so much stuff for the money. If you're too arrogant to do it, great, but some major stars still do it too -- maybe in more remote areas wearing disguise -- and admit it. Like me, they grew up in suburbia or remember what it was like to have less money. I'd rather spend the money on a splurge. The ones who are dumb, buy the same items at boutique stores for a $400 bill instead.
Sadly this isn't being done much by young people except in the suburbs. They're as likely to go to Costco, but who wants to buy tons of stuff in those huge carts just to save.
I've often that that if inner-city people could be taught to do this, how much it would help them budget. But poor people are the worst when it comes to showing how "superior" they are to coupon users -- middle class whites in Thousand Oaks do it all the time.
Some people just buy the Sunday paper for the ads and coupons, and it costs as much as a weekly subscription if you get a good rate. They should push that more.
As for the articles: When the Times went toward more USA today format, it lost readers, so now it's struggling to convince people that there's substance to it beyond the ads. The entertainment/fashion became more populist and gossipy, away from longer analyses. It had better make up its mind quick, which direction it's going in.
Typical, the "breaking story" about the LAUSD "losing" $400million worth of computers was in the Daily News several days ago -- but now the dogg discovers it and instead of linking to the Daily News and giving them credit, links it to his own blog to get hits. NEWS BEFORE IT HAPPENS.
(How long before the paranoid deletes this, too?)
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Zuma hurry, hurry, delete this psycho who is Zuma obsessed.
Wrong loser, I did indeed link to the stories from the original sites. Don't get my linking to stories I want to bring attention to, with "news before it happens" stories which occur occasionally when my Batcomputer is nice.
Just want to give fair "credit" where it's due. Yes Joe, you're keeping much better company here than you would at the Times. Though in truth, they don't need any more white guys old enough for AARP. Not that there isn't value in "experience," but they need to stretch their budget with more younger, cheap people. Trained and qualified cheap people, though.
Wow, that was quick, dogg. No, you link to YOUR blog, which then links to the Daily News, instead of linking directly to the news here and telling people they can link to yours if they want to have more brilliant analysis.
6:08 pm,
Uhm, yes, loser...I post threads on my own blog, as I always have. So yeah, I link to my blog for the thread with all the summaries of the stories I like for the day, with links to the full story.
When I don't have that much material, I post it all on Mayor Sam...but recently, with more stuff flying in -- I don't want to hog the blog, so I'm gonna post one main thread on mayor sam's blog -- and post updates on that one thread..instead of posting a new thread for each issue -- and possibly bottle-capping other people's threads.
(If a thread gets too overflowed, even with the stuff posted off site -- or something fresh pops-off that needs a new thread, I'm not saying I won't post more than once a day.
But I like the idea of posting on my own blog, for my own record/online diary, and post excerpts and links on mayor sam. That way it stays Mayor Sam's blog, and not Zuma Dogg's blog.
Don't be jealous, crybaby. I don't have any ads on my sites or blog, don't make a penny, and no one pays me. I just like having a place to put things down on record with a timestamp. Like ZD's online diary.
I have a GREAT IDEA: Don't read my threads and don't look at my website LACityUpdate.com or LADailyBlog.com even though I had to spend thousands for those URLs.
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