Upcoming in LA Times Obits: The Sunday Magazine

PhotobucketRemember those Sunday mornings when the LA Times magazine was something to look forward to? Terrific profiles/color pieces/semi-newsy features—in-depth stuff you went back and read a second time (and, admit it, clipped and filed in your battered ol’ copy of Websters, under the appropriate word)? The ‘90s?

Remember how enraged you were in ’99 when it was disclosed that the sleazy bean-counters had cut a secret deal to share magazine ad revenue with Staples Center? How happy you were when editorial-honcho heads rolled not too long after?

Remember how you wanted to punch/maim/kill someone when the mag was scaled back to monthly with a “theme”—that seemed designed merely to boost ad revenue (which it didn’t, or at least not enough)?

Well, remembering the magazine is all you’re gonna be doing after next month’s issue. It’ll be the last one. The paper’s business side is “finalizing plans for a new incarnation” alongside such Times-owned publications as Hoy, MetroMix and the Times' community newspapers. The new magazine, which could debut as early as August, will have a different name and a staff independent of the paper’s editorial department.

Times editor Russ Stanton noted in today’s Business section that Sunday magazines have become “an endangered species” amid cutbacks across the reeling industry as a whole.

And so the LCD factor rules once again: A forum for intelligent, thoughtful, provocative writing dies—while the pathetic Parade marches on.

I need a beer.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *