No, it’s not the title of Al Franken’s newest book. It’s the assessment by John Carroll, former editor of the Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times—two papers being burnt down by Tribune Co. to save them. Carroll told The (Maryland) Daily Record: “Zell may be a genius in other…

Back in 2007, when Sam Zell was swooping in to buy the Tribune Company, Eli Broad was mentioned as a possible last-minute bidder for its flagship paper, the Los Angeles Times. Now, as Tribune files for bankruptcy, the billionaire founder of KB Homes and SunAmerica is talking again about a…

Tribune Company’s Los Angeles Times just keeps on cutting. On its third round of layoffs in less than six months, LAT is cutting 300 positions and putting the separate local coverage into the print daily’s main section,  Publisher Eddy Hartenstein wrote in a staff memo on the LATimes’ blog (via…

Now they’re cutting sinew, there’s nothing left but bone… The Los Angeles Times is cutting 75 newsroom jobs, or 10 percent of its news staff, Reuters reported. The layoffs follow a comparable number of cuts that the Tribune Company newspaper made on its business side last week, editor Russ Stanton…

As the print side keeps bleeding, the Los Angeles Times Media Group keeps trying to extend into other platforms, both offline and online: the parent of LAT newspaper has jointly launched ZetaBid, a business that will auction foreclosed homes and other properties…it also has a website where the properties could…

The embattled newspaper Los Angeles Times has named Eddy Hartenstein, the former head of DirecTV, as its new publisher, a story first broken by DHD last month. He will fill in the position left vacant when David Hiller resigned on July 14, after parent Tribune began implementing the latest round…

Yes, believe it or not, some things are doing well at the embattled LA Times, and as expected, it is the online side. Some traffic numbers, from the company itself, in the form of a memo from interactive exec ed *Meredith* Artley on its clunkily-named Reader’s Representative Journal blog. Of…

More changes at Zell-owned Tribune, which recently announced fresh job cuts… Ann Marie Lipinski, editor since early 2001, has announced her resignation. She will be replaced by Gerould Kern, a veteran of the paper, and current Tribune Publishing VP, according to the paper. Lipinski, whose last day will be Thursday,…

The most troubled big newspaper in U.S. is cutting off 250 jobs, including an unprecedented 150 positions in editorial, to bring its expenses down in line with declining revenues.The Los Angeles Times newspaper will also reduce the number of pages it publishes each week by 15 percent, it announced on…

McLean, VA-based Mixx, a Digg-like social news site, has raised an additional $2 million from past investor Intersouth Partners. In addition to its first raise last October, the company has taken a strategic investment from the LA Times. The funding coincides with the recent launch of several new features, including…

With all the talk of job cuts at the Tribune Company and New York Times in the last two days, here’s something a little different: the Los Angeles Times has promoted Russ Stanton to serve as editor of the paper. The paper also reshuffled a number of other positions, including…

Push just came to shove at the LA Times, in a matter of speaking, with Tribune Company chairman and CEO Sam Zell coming down squarely on the business side in the dispute between publisher David Hiller and departed editor Jim O’Shea. From Zell’s email to LA staff (courtesy of LAObserved):…

The honeymoon is over at Tribune ... Jim O’Shea is out as editor of the LA Times—the second top editor to leave in 15 months over cost-cutting disputes. The WSJ reported that O’Shea was fired by publisher David Hiller “over a budgetary disagreement” according to a “person familiar with the…

Mixx, a social news startup from McLean, VA which announced its first round funding in October, has now added an interesting strategic investor: Los Angeles Times, part of the the hopefully-soon-to-be-private Tribune. Mixx is a bit like Digg, though for non-geeks, and LAT will now integrate the service within its…

Whoever winds up owning the LA Times once parent Tribune’s fate is determined will have a very different newsroom based on plans announced today. Publisher David Hiller and Editor James O’Shea, the team imported from Chicago after the LAT’s top execs balked at deep cuts, are implementing major changes. O’Shea’s…