L.A. Times cuts many regional sections, eliminating 450 staffers.At the beginning of the 1990s, the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). increased its focus on local coverage with a host of new, specialized regional sections. But as cutbacks ravaged rav·age v. rav·aged, rav·ag·ing, rav·ages v.tr. 1. To bring heavy destruction on; devastate: A tornado ravaged the town. 2. the ranks of the newspaper's staff last week, those specialized sections - and with them much of the newspaper's localized coverage - also found their way to the cutting block. Sections gone or soon-to-be-gone include the weekly City Times tabloid, which was created after the 1992 riots to focus on the central city area, as well as the weekly sections Ventura County Life, Valley Life and Valley Business. The Times Westside section, which had been published twice a week, will be reduced and reformatted and produced by California Community News Corp., the Times Mirror Co. subsidiary that publishes the Glendale News-Press. Other specialized sections chopped include Nuestro Tiempo, a weekly Spanish-language tabloid, the World Report, and the Times' Washington Edition, which was published for distribution on the East Coast. 'Noble experiment' ends "The strategy behind a number of the section cuts is a painful one," Times Editor and Executive Vice President Shelby Coffey III wrote to his staff in announcing the cutbacks. "Several noble experiments will have to be ended." "In these financially difficult times, it has become obvious that the publishing side cannot support as many people and sections as it has in the past. We will have to concentrate on the main paper, and not add as many sections as our natural creative urges might lead us to." One local publishing industry source said the Times cutbacks illustrate a problem that has plagued the paper for years - the failure to compete successfully with smaller suburban newspapers such as the Outlook in Santa Monica Santa Monica (săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. and the Pasadena Star News. "Conventional wisdom always had it that the old Herald Examiner was the Times' biggest competitor," the source said. "That was never the case, however. The Times has always had problems competing with the suburban dailies." Gordon Agan, director of strategic media planing at Time Buying Services, a media buying service in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , agreed. "I don't think those (localized) sections of the Times were working," he said, "so closing them is probably a smart move. It's not going to hurt the Times' main product - advertising or editorially - at all." All told, about 150 members of the Times' editorial staff received layoff notices July 21. Some 300 positions in other Times departments will be eliminated in the next several weeks as well. The Times still carries an editorial staff of more than 1,100. The cutbacks were part of a wider downsizing (1) Converting mainframe and mini-based systems to client/server LANs. (2) To reduce equipment and associated costs by switching to a less-expensive system. (jargon) downsizing announced the previous week by Times parent company the Times Mirror. Those broader cuts included closing down New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Newsday, a 216,000 daily circulation tabloid in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. that was shuttered shut·ter n. 1. One that shuts, as: a. A hinged cover or screen for a window, usually fitted with louvers. b. on July 17, taking some 800 jobs with it. Except for the Westside section, which began printing in 1957, all of the cut sections of the Los Angeles Times were created after 1990. Most were created with an eye toward increasing local coverage and to collect local ad dollars, said Times spokeswoman Laura Morgan. But the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, economy softened and took with it the type of local retail, automotive and real estate advertisers that are the staples for local publications. Classified advertising has dropped more than 30 percent since 1990, Morgan said. In 1991, the Times began pulling back its circulation outside the newspaper's core readership in areas like Kern County, Central California Central California can refer to one of several divisions or regions of the U.S state of California:
But those cuts were not enough, and the newspaper, wracked by a continuing flat advertising base and a projected 85 percent increase in the cost of newsprint from spring of 1994 to the end of this year, looked for new ways to trim costs. Other sections dropped In May, the Times discontinued publishing three weekly suburban sections, San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley is one of the principal valleys of southern California. It lies to the east of the city of Los Angeles, to the north of the Puente Hills, to the south of the San Gabriel Mountains, and to the west of the Inland Empire. , South Bay and Southeast/Long Beach, which, like many of the recent cuts, were unprofitable locally targeted publications. The latest round of cuts continued that trend. "The elements we are eliminating are unprofitable, and in the current environment we simply cannot afford to continue publishing them," said Times Publisher Richard T. Schlosberg Richard T. Schlosberg III (born c. 1945) is an American business leader who has served in executive positions at a number of newspapers and other organizations. Schlosberg graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1965. III. "Plans are underway to provide much of the news and advertising from these sections in other formats." For example, the news and advertising from Ventura County Life, Valley Life and Valley Business, will be included in other sections of the regional editions in which they appeared. But they will be scaled back from their previous stand-along tabloid formats, Morgan said. RELATED ARTICLE: Daily News to leap into Times void Two days after the Los Angeles Times announced a major scaling back of its presence in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , the Woodland Hills-based Daily News announced a major expansion of its valley coverage. Among the Daily News' plans, announced July 23, are the expansion of the newspaper's Business pages and L.A. Life lifestyles section: On July 21, the Times announced it was eliminating its Valley Business and Valley Life sections, and would insert that news and advertising in other parts of its regional Valley Edition. The Daily News also announced an expansion of its valley high school and college sports coverage, and expanded coverage of community news in its Main News section. "As the Times reduces its commitment to the valley, it is more important than ever that we at the Daily News increase our commitment to serving valley readers better," said Daily News President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Larry T. Beasley. He added that while the Daily News has been hit by the same stagnant advertising environment and rising newsprint prices, as has the Times, the company's recent administrative and operating restructuring have improved its financial performance. As a result, Daily News owner Jack Kent Cooke Jack Kent Cooke (25 October, 1912 – 6 April, 1997) was a Canadian-American entrepreneur who became one of the most widely-known executives in North American professional sports. recently announced that the newspaper, which had been up for sale for more than a year, had been taken off the market. The Daily News' daily circulation is 202,000. The Times' daily circulation is 1,058,000 - Greg Spring |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion