Article on L.A. Times in New York magazine

http://nymag.com/news/imperialcity/23173/index.html

 

Interesting article. Kurt Anderson guy makes some good points about the Los Angeles Times, and I think he kind of gets it. There isn't that much local coverage in the LA Times, and you get the feeling reading it that the LA Times isn't real familiar with politics and developments in surrounding areas. The LA Times has a low market share for a major paper.

I don't think Kurt Anderson understands southern California. The proportion of college graduates in the area is probably less than New York, so that would explain the difference. He didn't give any indication he understands the impact of immigration, and the fact that even many educated immigrants would feel more comfortable reading a newspaper in their first language and that there would have to be something worthwhile in the paper to read the LA Times.

 

There was some sniping on Poynter that some of Kurt Anderson's figures were wrong...there's been a pretty good discussion about this for the past week. Someone really went after Michael Kinsey and his stint as editorial page editor, which was right up there in the bad ideas Hall of Fame, along with New Coke, "Cop Rock" and Lou Holtz coaching the New York Jets.

 

Interesting story with a lot of issues that needed to be addressed. As TylerD pointed out via Poynter, the college grad numbers are way, waaay off and Gold's lucid take on the immigration issue is one KA left unsaid.

But he's right on regarding the Times' lack of passion for covering its own backyard. It ceded coverage of that to the late, lamented Herald-Examiner a generation ago and is doing the same with the inferior LA Daily News now.

Dating to the ownership of the Chandlers (with good reasons there), it has never shown any passion to covering the local politics and was surprisingly late on figuring out it should be the Voice of the Entertainment Industry.

I'm also fond of this, which drops needed napalm on St. Dean's lofty reputation.

http://www.laweekly.com/general/deadline-hollywood/dean-of-sycophants/14755/