LA Times Kills Goldstein Post; LA Observed Publishes It
Funny how life works. The LA Times is suffering from a significant revenue decline. One of their columnists, Patrick Goldstein, writes about it and the piece is promptly killed. However it magically appears over at LA Observed where it will probably be one of their biggest stories of the year. The irony is fascinating. The Times pays for a column to be written and it ends up giving them no revenue, bad press, and increased revenue at someone else’s website. Even the NYT is generating revenue from it, as we hope to as well. In fact, everyone is benefiting from the blocked piece except the company who paid for its creation.
What did Goldstein write that was so harmful to Tribune that it got the ax?
Not much really. He notes that the paper is in trouble, which everyone knows, and maybe should try something creative like what the Daily Mail did with Prince. That’s all.
…the strange alliance offers a striking example of how two struggling businesses could reinvent themselves. In fact, I have to admit that my professional assessment of the giveaway quickly gave way to a much more personal reaction.
Why couldn’t my newspaper do that?
Read the whole column at LA Observed if for no other reason than because the Times didn’t want you to.
If you do make it over to the LATimes.com for some reason, make sure to congratulate them on the excellent reporting on LA County Supervisor Yvonne Burke who has been, literally, living a lie. It turns out that if you want to represent people, you need to live near them. This detail escaped Burke and when she was called on it she lied about it. Fortunately, a Times reporter followed her around and noted where she really lived. This is not the sort of thing that blogs (even Patterico and LA Observed) can do. Granted catching the misdeeds of LA County’s Supervisors is like shooting fish in a barrel but the Times’ reporting on this should still be commended.
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July 30th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Pssst! Don’t tell the Times that T.J. Simers has a radio show. And don’t tell them that he sometimes acts cranky on said show.
July 30th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
I kind of miss the old days they lampoon in the play (and movies of) THE FRONT PAGE. “While a city sleeps, the Examiner captures escaped killer Earl Williams!” Even with the excess, you get the feeling they were actually out kicking over rocks and enjoying it, rather than just printing press releases and calling people for a quote of an opposing viewpoint. (John Doe was accued of rape, sodomy, bestiality and conspiracy to shoplift M&M’s from the Shell station on the corner. Doe did not return our telephone call by press-time.)