J.A. Adande seeks LAT buyout

And they can find someone else to step in and do what Adonde does. No one is irreplaceable. Remember that.

 

Not to impugn sources -- and the columnist page thing is interesting -- but again, Adande was a confirmed buyout taker on L.A. Observed yesterday.

 

piotr rasputin & sf_express,

here's an e-mail a buddy at the los angeles times sent, with the columnist info.

there's no j.a. adande.

http://webapp1.latimes.com/yourtimes/media_personalities/index.html

Dear Colleague-

Each week, over 5 million readers and online users
come to us to inform, move, inspire, amuse and connect
them. They want to feel smarter, more interesting
and more involved as a result of their interaction
with us and our recent research efforts reveal that
cultivating emotional connection between them and our
unique content is one of the best ways to increase the
amount of time they spend with us.

With this in mind, we are launching “Your Times” a
new, multimedia campaign that will put faces and
context to our bylines and editorial personalities who
represent the very heart and soul of who we are - why
we matter – and how that is of value. Most
importantly, “Your Times” will address the average
reader's question of “What’s in it for ME?”

The campaign kicks off tomorrow with our sports
personalities (“The Offense”), followed in the coming
months by our political writers (“The Politicos”),
entertainment journalists (“The Entertainers”), and
will also include writers and columnists who our
readers consider to be among the most topical (“The
Storytellers” and “The Trendspotters”). We’ve tied
“Your Times” collective themes (sports, entertainment,
etc.) to correspond with peak “seasons” of consumer
interest – directly targeting our infrequent readers
and underscoring our relevance to them.

We have an aggressive, local media plan for “Your
Times” that includes a variety of paid and trade media
such as movie theater trailers; event and panel
appearances; in-paper, online, collateral, billboard;
video, radio, television and print interviews; and a
special micro-site at
http://www.latimes.com/yourtimes.

Elements will be posted on TimesLink in the coming
days, and we will be providing monthly email updates
to you as we evolve the campaign over time. If you
have suggestions or feedback, we welcome it. This
has been a collaborative effort across several
departments, including Editorial, Interactive, and
MARCOM – special thanks there. Now, let’s take it
forward together.

Best, JTO

John T. O'Loughlin
SVP/Marketing, Planning & Development
Los Angeles Times Media Group
202 W. 1st St - Suite B1
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-237-2975 - Office
213-237-5317 - Fax
john.oloughlin@latimes.com
The Definitive Media Choice for Southern California
with over 5M readers and online users each week

 

In a business of writers and where writing is hopefully respected, something like this memo comes out?

Guess what, Mr. O? If your people were great personalities, they would be on television making big bucks. The number of people who pay for your paper has dropped by over 200,000 during the past couple of years. Now you are going to do a bang-up job on the Internet where the barriers to entry are easier?

I guess the strategy is to cut back on what people actually PAY for, and increase your presence where you might or might not get advertisers?

 

The coupons are still good in the Sunday Times.

 

I just found one of the posters for your times and it has T.j. Simers on it with the quote "There's a lot of friction in sports. I find humor in that."

 

sportsjournalists.com ahead again.

from labobserved.com

Dollars well spent?
Staffers at the Los Angeles Times were more than a bit shocked when they got to work Tuesday. Posted on the elevator walls were large photos of selected sports columnists and writers, part of a new campaign to raise the awareness of certain Times names among the Angeleno proletariat. (And, apparently, the paper's own staff.) This memo from John T. O'Loughlin, SVP/Marketing, Planning & Development of the Los Angeles Times Media Group, went around last week:

Dear Colleague-
Each week, over 5 million readers and online users come to us to inform, move, inspire, amuse and connect them. They want to feel smarter, more interesting and more involved as a result of their interaction with us and our recent research efforts reveal that cultivating emotional connection between them and our unique content is one of the best ways to increase the amount of time they spend with us.

With this in mind, we are launching “Your Times” a new, multimedia campaign that will put faces and context to our bylines and editorial personalities who represent the very heart and soul of who we are - why we matter and how that is of value. Most importantly, “Your Times” will address the average reader's question of “What’s in it for ME?”

The campaign kicks off tomorrow with our sports personalities (“The Offense”), followed in the coming months by our political writers (“The Politicos”), entertainment journalists (“The Entertainers”), and will also include writers and columnists who our readers consider to be among the most topical (“The Storytellers” and “The Trendspotters”). We’ve tied “Your Times” collective themes (sports, entertainment, etc.) to correspond with peak “seasons” of consumer interest directly targeting our infrequent readers and underscoring our relevance to them.

We have an aggressive, local media plan for “Your Times” that includes a variety of paid and trade media such as movie theater trailers; event and panel appearances; in-paper, online, collateral, billboard; video, radio, television and print interviews; and a special micro-site at
http://www.latimes.com/yourtimes.

All well and good (I suppose), but the part that some people inside found interesting is that the anointed sports personalities pointedly do not include columnist J.A. Adande — fueling speculation that the slight is behind his filing for the buyout. Adande is African American, but the campaign does include another black sportswriter, Lonnie White. Yet another prominent LAT sports figure omitted: Christine Daniels.

 

It's on the rack cards, too. With a picture. Ugh!!

 

A paper advertising its product in hopes of boosting its dollars and circulation... and we laugh? What's funny? They are trying to save their newspaper. I wish we all had ad departments like that.

 

MileHigh, you think there are others from the (old) L.A. Times Sports Dept. headed over there?

 

Well, there's a fishing expedition if I've ever seen one.