Dead Tree Newspaper Has Big Problem

AP
LA Times editor fired in budget dispute

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer 24 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles Times fired its top editor after he rejected a management order to cut $4 million from the newsroom budget, 14 months after his predecessor was also ousted in a budget dispute, the newspaper said Sunday.


James O'Shea was fired following a confrontation with Publisher David D. Hiller, the Times reported on its Web site. The story didn't say when the confrontation took place.

Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said the newspaper would have no comment.

O'Shea's departure comes just a month after the Times' parent, Chicago-based Tribune Co., was taken private in an $8.2 billion buyout by real estate magnate Sam Zell.

The departure also follows that of his predecessor, Dean Baquet, who was forced to resign after he opposed further cuts to the newsroom budget in 2006.

O'Shea, then the Chicago Tribune's managing editor, was brought in to replace him.

At the time, he asked the news staff not to see him as "the hatchet man from Chicago" and promised to fight to ensure the Times would "remain a major force in American journalism."

"If I think there is too much staff I will say so," O'Shea told the paper's editors and reporters in 2006. "And if I think there is not enough I will say that, too."

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I remember seeing a television program on this very subject last year.
Let me first say to MR.O'Shea, Good For You! The guy has principles and he ain't afraid to stick by them.Very rare these days, especially in the MSM.
The man told them up front the way he was going to run it, knowing full well they were going to come in slashing,and he stuck to his guns.
The L.A. Times is no lightweight endeavor, it has a huge circulation.The fact that they fired him tells me he told them where the bear goes in the woods and if they wanted to cut staff, they were doing so to the detriment of the business.
You can't make a newspaper without people who know how to make newspapers. Apparently this small detail has escaped some bean counters, who are about to find that out the hard way.
It never fails to amaze me, that someone would go through all the trouble and BILLIONS of dollars, and think that they can just do fine and dandy without the very people who made the place worth anything to begin with.

I guess thats why I am just a lowly mechanic.
I will tell you what I do know, there are a whole lot of parts in a high performance engine, and I have yet to see anyone make one go fast without ANY of them.