LAT kills off the local section. Yes, you read that right.

this was at the end of a story on the Super Bowl ads.
Ironic joke or for real?

Here's the link, that took about 20 minutes to load.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-superbowl-ads2-2009feb02,0,5725828.story

 

I can't tell exactly what the whole deal was.

Did Houston Mitchell indeed get laid off, and did a copy editor help him with this farewell shot? Or what?

 

I am FAIL today, that and reading comprehension escapes me.
The graf before the editor's note.

 

Gotta be a joke.

 

The more I read it, the more I agree.

Subtle and smart/smart-ass -- almost too much so, in fact, and very much like something Houston Mitchell would write.

But if it is a joke, it's not one that I would've made. Not these days.

Nobody should be giving anybody any ideas.

 

Well, honestly, that's why I wondered about it.

 

Seems to have been an attempt to play off the content of the last commercial reviewed. I imagine many Times readers didn't see it that way.

 

A quarter of the pressroom staff to go. Newsroom cuts being finalized. Times gets permission to offer substantially less severance than before:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/02/lat_pressrooms_to_lose_qu.php

 

I repeat what I said last week: I take no joy in posting these things. But L.A. Observed says more cuts likely Monday, with some more ominous thoughts as well:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/02/update_on_newspaper_angst.php

 

Wow that's depressing.

 

That just skirts the surface, Beej.

Read the other items and if you grew up reading the Times, you get angry. Flat-out, full-bore pissed-fucking-off at what these douchenozzles have done to one of the greatest journalistic entities in the history of the medium.

We get the Sunday Times because my wife wants the coupons and what passes for local news. I can barely bear to read it anymore and I do so only out of loyalty to folks I know who work there and because it allows me to keep up on LA sports happenings.

It hurts to see an entity like this go down like this. I grew up with this paper, made a point to have the Sunday edition mailed to me when I lived in another state and was lucky enough to toil for one of its community editions for nearly 2 1/2 years.

I also played in a softball league with Russ Stanton -- a good, good guy at the time -- once upon a long time ago. I can't fathom how he would deal with presiding over death by a thousand paper cuts.

The whole thing is disgusting. It's sickening and unnecessary and Eddy Hartenstein's resignation should have been tendered yesterday.

Rant over.

 

Only one? The way things are going I believe it may be more than one, and probably some mid-sized cities as well.

RIP LAT.