Simers could be out at LAT

Shit... I forgot about that.

 

The question is when the closed door meeting was. If it was around May or June, the absence may have been part of a severance package. It is more common in local television, but it may have happened here.

 

It hardly was a secret at this point, but we couldn't say anything until it was official. Here's a link to our story (in front of the paywall) announcing T.J. Simers joining the Orange County Register: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/sports-526218-simers-register.html

His first column is scheduled to run Thursday.

 

This will be good for the Register, and if people there are smart -- and I have no doubt of that -- they will keep Simers' column in front of the pay wall, for a little while, at least.

If so, I have no doubt Simers' column will attract some current/former LAT readers -- perhaps even a significant number of them -- to the Register. They may come to stay once they get a look at the more locally driven but still quality content that, at times, still has the broader range and appeal that the Timers offers.

Also, because the Register's online operation is better than the Times', that will likely also translate to readers even if/when Simers' goes behind a paywall, once people discover the paper's online presence.

 

No way Simers brings readers to the OC Register. None. Orange County is a very conservative community and his act won't work there.

This may provide a burst in the short run, but it will fade in about nine months. The OC Register has some good sports writers, who no doubt will be chipped at by Simers. His proud ignorance of hockey won't work.

I think the editors wanted to get Simers so it would look like they signed somebody away from the LA Times. They knew exactly what to say, bringing up former Chicago columnist Mike Royko, who was somebody who tried to speak up for ordinary people against idiots in government. The suits at the OC Register will regret hiring him.

Speaking of Royko, at one point he switched newspapers in Chicago. He told someone that he would take a certain number of readers with him to the other newspapers. When Columbia Journalism Review looked into this (I think this was in the 1980s), the wrote about it and found no such movement in circulation.

If the OC Register is this paper which still has ink running through their blood, somebody name me three OC columnists now on staff who would fit the Royko model.

 

LAObserved correspondent spends the day in court as the Simers v. LAT trial begins. (Too much here to paraphrase):

T.J. Simers gets his day(s) in court

 

They should settle by offering him the vacant pop music editor position.