latimes – Page 5 – Andy Sternberg

January 21, 2007

The L.A. Times’ Iraq Coverage

Lately it seems that the LA Times‘ A Section has at least one Iraq-related article on nearly every page. While the rest of the media world speculates on the fate of the TribCo and the designs the Times‘ potential suitors may have in mind, is the paper covering Iraq better than anyone else?

The general trend of newspapers focused on cost-cutting and boosting readership is to expand local coverage. But as recently as last month, the Times foreign desk has been looking to add more reporters to its Baghdad Bureau (LAO).

One definite advantage is printing in the Pacific Time Zone. When it’s midnight in LA, it’s 11am in Baghdad, so while East Coast papers have already hit the streets, the Times has the opportunity to print Monday’s early morning news from Iraq in the Monday paper. Case in point: The Times seemed to be the only major paper to sneak a report of last week’s early-morning execution of two Hussein aides into its morning edition.

The global press appears to be infatuated with the wordy and fairly balanced analyses of The New York Times‘ man in Baghdad, John F. Burns. But one man can’t possibly provide for a broad understanding of how the situation on the ground relates to the disingenuous and spin-wrought policy statements out of D.C. and Baghdad. Hence, this shout-out to Baghdad Bureau Chief Borzou Daragahi, Louise Roug, Julian E. Barnes, Peter Spiegel, Megan K. Stack, Solomon Moore, and Molly Hennessy-Fiske for bringing the truth to our doorsteps.

Ex-CNN News chief Eason Jordan lays out a typical day of LAT Iraq coverage here. Check for yourself online at http://latimes.com/iraq.

originally posted at LAist

January 2, 2007

CJR: Give it Up Already, TribCo

An unsigned editorial in the Columbia Journalism Review declares that the Tribune has to pull out of the newspaper business entirely — in addition to relinquishing ownership of the LA Times ASAP.

Meanwhile, I got a voicemail today from an LAT subscriptions-bot saying that my Fri-Sun subscription (which costs $1.25/wk — offer is here) will now include Thursdays at no additional cost. Any chance I can donate these free papers to ensure the job security of my favorite columnists that have not yet been laid off?

The CJR article is here. Kevin Roderick summarizes and points to additional links at LAObserved here. A thoughtful post at labrainterrain on the depressing state o’ the Times. Also, Mack at LAVoice.

photo from debaird’s flickr.

November 12, 2006

Let’s Go Own the Times

The headline sounds facetious, but the past two times it has been brought up it makes quite a bit of sense.

Harry Chandler writes in the Sunday L.A. Times:

If 20% of Times readers invest $1,000, it could work. I’ll write the first check for the Los Angeles Times Community Owners LLC.

Chandler is the son of Otis — the man who MADE the Times. The Chandler Family Trust owns about 15% of Tribune Company — the largest single stake.

Calvin Naito opined in August, “If you, my fellow 10 million residents of Los Angeles County, each chip in $300, we can cough up the $3 billion needed to buy and collectively own the most powerful local institution — the Los Angeles Times.”

Steve Lopez has been begging the likes of Eli Broad to up and buy the paper for months. (Oddly, this column can no longer be found in the Times online despite being found in two alternate versions — “Free the Press From Corporate Profiteers” and “Finding a Benefactor Could Be Tall Order” in Lexis).

In Saturday’s paper, Tim Rutten made turning the Times back around sound like an impossible task: “the only way to reinvigorate local coverage and to establish the kind of strong online presence that will guarantee the paper’s future is to stop doing something we now do for readers or to do it less thoroughly and less well, hoping that those readers just won’t mind.”

But Chandler, whose two cents really count for something, has a more hopeful outlook — and I think I like it: “Publish only columnists with original, even provocative, perspectives. Pursue more investigative pieces and assign fewer reporters to a story that 75% of readers already saw on ESPN or CNN or Yahoo.”

Hope for a happy ending soon. Expect to hear about it first at LAObserved.