Author: Linni Kral
Notice anything different about your daily California newspaper lately? Even if you give it the mere cursory glance many have reduced their paper intake to, it’s hard to ignore that The Los Angeles Times has a large, California-sized hole in it. That’s right-as of March 3rd, the paper made some changes to their lineup including cutting the entire California section from their pages.
Now, I prepared to write one angry article about this. Knees everywhere are jerking at the first mention of this change, mine included, and I was certainly in that camp of people assuming the worst of the implications this brings to journalism in Los Angeles.
One aspect of this change is the absorption of local news into the national A-section. This bore the most worrisome implications for me-will local writers now be shunned in favor of standardized Associated Press articles? Or worse than mere shunning, will they all lose their jobs?L.A. Times owner Sam Zell has already gained notoriety about town for the changes made to the paper since his Tribune Company acquired it in 2007. Some long-time staffers have left the paper as a result of these changes, while others may be forced to leave as budget cuts and layoffs become more frequent in the current economy.
While it’s easy to pin Zell as the big bad wolf in this story, his huffing and puffing is not working singularly to take down the California local news. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the current financial crisis has everyone cutting corners, so why are we so much more forgiving of other industries (Detroit, anyone?) but not print media? This is an industry that has been struggling long before words like “recession,” “subprime mortgage” and “bailout” became everyday fodder for conversation.
In fact, Zell had barely recovered from his last wave of public scorn over an increase in the price of the paper from 50 to 75 cents in January. This is a tactic often employed by papers during a recession and while it does result in a decrease in readers, it’s a lost cohort they usually gain back post-recession. This time, it is unlikely to happen in today’s world of online news where one need look no further than their cell phone to get status updates on the world.
This change, as well as the more recent section shuffle, is one many are opposed to solely on principle, not because of how it affects their daily life. To all those registering complaints with the section change, ask yourself this-when was the last time you went to the newsstand and paid full price to pick up an L.A. Times Many of us check online, others get free copies on campus. How can we judge Zell for making changes to keep his company afloat when so many of us are cutting similar corners in our own lives?
Upon closer research and examination of interviews with Zell (online, I must admit), I found that the bad guy in all this actually prioritizes local news above national. He wants to see more local stories on the cover of the paper itself, rather than relegated to the cover of the California section, buried within the pages that fewer and fewer people are bothering to fold back.
True, some do still enjoy the morning ritual of staining their coffee mug with newsprint-inked fingers. But with this population of folks decreasing rapidly, competition among publications has intensified. When competition prevails and you don’t think you can contend with the major players, it might be best to find a niche market. What better niche for a local paper than it’s regional readers? The L.A. Times doesn’t necessarily have what it takes to compete with the New York Times, so they’re going to try shifting their focus.
So while I did intend to lambaste Zell in this article for wrecking one of my favorite parts of the paper, I find myself unable to judge the man’s decision-making capabilities. Cutting the California section may sound like the epitome of media ownership consolidation and standardization, but this action actually endeavors to accomplish the exact opposite-fleshing out the paper’s status as regional, rather than splitting focus between local coverage and national news during a time of limited resources and a readership that’s decreasing exponentially.
This is just one battle, though. It probably won’t be long before Zell is back in the news with another maddening change. While we can’t predict what this specialization plan means for the paper just yet, maybe I’ll get my chance to really lay into him next time around.
Linni Kral is a senior Politics major. She can be reached at lkral@oxy.edu.
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