Subject: Sam Zell

• Daily Pilot Publishes Ignorant Prudes!

  Today, the Daily Pilot published a piece by freelance writer Steve Smith in which he takes issue with my Feb. 10 op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times (where I'm a contributing editor) criticizing its bowdlerized edits regarding stories (the passing of former Nixon Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz and new Times owner Sam Zell's f-you to an Orlando Sentinel photographer) where an obscenity is the story. "Contrary to popular belief, neither story is better with the bad language included," Smith

  February 26, 2008

• Sam Zell's gonna cut you, man

  Joseph Pulitzer, famed newspaper magnate and founder of the Pulitzer Prize once said, "Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together." Sam Zell, billionaire and CEO of the Los Angeles Times parent Tribune Co. once said, "Everyone likes pussy. It’s un-American not to like pussy." With such an eloquent man at the helm of the Southland's flagship newspaper, there's little doubt that our press, along with our Republic, are once again on the rise. That is, as long as we're not talking abou

  February 26, 2008

• Jennifer Delson--Going :-(

  Papi Pulido and his amigos can breathe a bit easier: longtime Los Angeles Times SanTana reporter Jennifer Delson is leaving the paper, as reported by LA Observed and confirmed by Delson via phone call. Delson has written about Orange County's wackiest city since 1999, when she was known as Jennifer Mena. No word yet on whether the Times will replace Delson with another writer, but her departure is further proof that owner Sam Zell is all bluster and cuss words and no action. Hey Zell, you fuck

  March 6, 2008

• Times editorial goes straight to Zell

  The Los Angeles Times today on its editorial page gave Tribune Co. Grandmaster and indelicate asshole Sam Zell the finger when it criticized Prop. 98 and asked readers for a big No vote. The Times sent out a press release mentioning how they weren't going to bend to the pressure. While noble, it really isn't anything other than what should be expected from what is widely considered one of the preeminent newspapers in the country. But in these trying times, doing it right is always appreciated.

  May 12, 2008

• Times Begins Layoffs, Reg to Up the Ante?

  Today, according to reports on LAObserved and Fishbowl LA, the Los Angeles Times got an early start to the layoffs announced last week of 150 newsroom employees. Editors have already drawn up lists of names of folks who will be handed pink slips. But with the surprise—not really—exception of publisher David Hiller, who just quit, no actual names are floating around, according to one source at the paper who has so far survived the bloodletting of Times owner Sam Zell (pictured0.* Meanwhile,

  July 14, 2008

• William Lobdell--Gone :-(

  As noted below by Scott, William Lobdell has left the Los Angeles Times. And, as Scott noted, Lobdell was no ordinary reporter--the man was a multiple-award-winning titan, one of the best religion reporters ever to grace American newspapers, and definitely the best in covering the Gospel Swamp that is Orange County. He left the religion beat last year, sickened by the county's many Pharisees. Now, Orange County has no full-time reporter covering religion at the Times or the Orange County Registe

  July 15, 2008

• Print Journalism: The 8-track cassette of news?

  William Lobdell, a veteran investigative reporter/editor in the Orange County wings of the Los Angeles Times media empire until he took a buyout last month, launched LOBDELL'S OC today. Lobdell says his blog will focus on news and observations concerning OC, but his inaugural post provided dark, if noteworthy, comments about the state of print journalism. "The idea that your daily news is collected, written, edited, paginated, printed on dead trees, put in a series of trucks and cars and deliv

  August 4, 2008

• Goodbye Tony D. ... and the Pilot, too?

  Sad news about a really good guy, Tony Dodero: the former editor-in-chief of the Newport Beach/Costa Mesa Daily Pilot is being let go as the director of news and online for L.A. Times Community News publications, which include the Pilot, Huntington Beach Independent and Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Following are Tony's letter to his staff and Bill Lobdell's take on the Pilot's demise. Lobdell, who recently left the Times where he wrote about religion, was the editor of the Pilot in the early

  October 21, 2008

• News Maker Makes News

  LA Times owner Sam Zell has been in the news quite a bit this week. On Monday we learned that his Tribune Media Company filed for bankruptcy even though all of the papers under its rule are making a profit. Today brought news that freshly arrested Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to get Zell to fire editorial writers who wrote unfavorable pieces on him and threatened that if the Tribune didn't support the governor, he wouldn't approve the sale of Wrigley Field. What gems will surface

  December 9, 2008

• The Content-Sharing Deal Between the OC Register and MediaNews Hasn't Led to Cuts at the Reg (Yet)

  March 20, 2008

• Will OC Register Move From Santa Ana to Times OC Building in Costa Mesa?

  Is a "for sale" sign coming to the Orange County Register's Santa Ana complex?​Not that long ago, the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times were embroiled in a bitter circulation battle that resulted in huge resources being pumped into this region, competing "hyper-local" community papers popping up like weeds and both papers reaping the spoils of some of the highest advertising rates in the country.My, how times have changed. With the daily print newspaper industry in major retre

  September 3, 2009