Friday, January 30, 2009

Incredible Shrinking Newspapers

The Los Angeles Times has killed its California local news section...which for me was the main reason to read the paper, other than Sports.

They've already eliminated things I enjoyed in Calendar such as Susan King's regular articles on classic movie DVDs and screenings.

Patterico notes that the Times is bizarrely covering this major news about itself with a story citing the reporting of Kevin Roderick at L.A. Observed (a story which can be read by clicking the title of this post).

The Times headline? "L.A. Paper Loses Local Section." This is how it reports about its own changes?

I'm thinking the paper may be gone altogether in the next 18 months or so... Trying to stay in business by not publishing a paper -- or at least not much of one -- isn't a business model that can work.

Update: The Times made its official announcement this afternoon.

Obituaries and weather move from the back of the California section to the back of the Business section, and the Classifieds are going to be tacked on to the end of the Sports section, which will be annoying.

2 Comments:

Blogger Irene said...

You should see what they've done with the Long Beach Press Telegram. It's pathetic!

12:00 AM  
Blogger Laura said...

I get the "weekend" subscription of the P-T (Fri-Sun plus Tuesday) and agree! I find the way they've tacked the TV and comics onto the back of Sports some days, only printing 2 sections, really annoying. It's hard to believe some days when I open up the paper -- one day recently one of my kids said "That's *it*?" in disbelief.

I've read the P-T my whole life since we have always had so many close connections to LB (work, church, preschool, doctors, grandparents, etc. -- plus we lived in LB, off the Circle, when we were first married). Getting the "weekend" edition is a holdover from when I worked at a Downtown LB law firm and would bring the reception area copy home at night on weekdays (grin).

Laura

12:04 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Newer›  ‹Older