Los Angeles Times staffers have not been blessed with the same good news that the New York Times newsroom received today.

As rumored, Russ Stanton, editor of The Los Angeles Times, announced this morning that 75 people are being laid off. It's the third round of job cuts for the paper this year, and will lower the newsroom head count to about 650 people. Their newsroom had 1,200 people seven years ago.

LA Observed has the memo:

Colleagues,

The growing economic downturn is forcing us to undergo another round of job reductions and cost cuts. I deeply regret to report that today, 75 of our friends, colleagues and capable staff members in Editorial will be told that they are losing their jobs.

 read more »

As warned, The Los Angeles Times has completed its redesign.

And it is much less splashy than The Chicago Tribune's was.

It's a point that Lee Abrams, the chief innovation director for Tribune, mentioned in a memo to his staffers. "It will be quite a bit less dramatic than our other newspapers, but has some wonderful new elements."

One change included: removing "staff writer" next to a byline and replaced with "Joe Smith / Reporting from London." Today's front-page has a "Reporting from South Africa" tagline on Page 1, clearly a tactical move by Russ Stanton, the paper's editor, demonstrating that, yes, the paper's staff may have been cut in half over the last seven years, but it still has reporters abroad.  read more »

It's the L.A. Times' first Democratic endorsement in a presidential election ever, and the paper's first presidential endorsement since 1972.

We may one day look back on this presidential campaign in wonder. We may marvel that Obama's critics called him an elitist, as if an Ivy League education were a source of embarrassment, and belittled his eloquence, as if a gift with words were suddenly a defect. In fact, Obama is educated and eloquent, sober and exciting, steady and mature. He represents the nation as it is, and as it aspires to be.

Kevin Roderick at LA Observed got his hands on some of the images that Los Angeles Times is handing to focus groups on their proposed redesign.

One thing we noticed (and sort of like): The L.A. Times "staff writer" tagline below a reporter's byline is done; it'll be replaced by something that says, BY NED PARKER / REPORTING FROM BAGHDAD.

It definitely steals something from a TV reporter's handbook, but it still works.

Anyway, the proposed Times' redesign looks a lot more tolerable than the Chicago Tribune's.

Can it get any worse for The Los Angeles Times?

In a year when the paper has cut far more editorial staffers than any paper in the country, it appears the're not quite done yet.

Keven Roderick at LA Observed is reporting that more job cuts are on the way, and the number could be as high as 75 editorial positions.

Among those expected to lose their job is Leo Wolinsky, the assocate editor of the paper, according to two souces who spoke to Media Mob.

Sources also told us the job cut rumors have been flying for a few weeks now. One source tells us that the number will be about 50 people let go.  read more »

Since The Los Angeles Times decided to lay off 135 people—100+ people for the second time this year—its PR brass has been trying to distract the media with other, happier news. Yesterday, with a nice link from Romenesko, the Times announced that it had its biggest Web-traffic month ever with 127 million page views in July.

Every piece of publicity that comes out of the paper is issued from Russ Stanton, the paper's editor of six months, who had previously been in charge of latimes.com. Naturally, a lot of it will be latimes.com-related (if it's not about traffic, the news is always about new blogs).  read more »

Shortly after a magnitude-5.8 earthquake hit Los Angeles this afternoon, the L.A. Times Web site went down. Managing editor John Arthur explained in an (obviously dashed off given the circumstances) email to staff: "our website server is staggering because of heavy volume. the page actually has been updated and may load for soe people. keep refreshing."

We're talking to a few Times staffers via IM. Are people freaking out? "not so much on my floor. I was in the cafeteria and saw them filing out. they said it was 'standard,' that we had to [evacuate]. But I went back to my desk to get my cell, and everyone was here," one tapepd in. Another: "everyone is kinda joking now and getting back to work."

And now for the news!

Sam Zell and Randy Michaels are about to end the Sunday Book Review at the L.A. Times and book reviews editors past are not pleased about it. Four former editors of the section—Sonja Bolle, Digby Diehl, Jack Miles and Steve Wasserman—wrote in a joint-letter to L.A. Observed complaining about the decision.

To be sure, no section of any newspaper can remain hostage to past ways of covering the news of the day. We are convinced, however, that the way forward is to increase coverage of our literary culture—a culture that every day is more vibrant and diverse in the thriving megalopolis of Los Angeles.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/media/l-times-terminates-sunday-book-review-opinion-section-next#comments Media Book Review L.A. Times Sam Zell Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:01:50 -0400 John Koblin 72130 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/media/newsroom-free-l-times-mag-hires-familiar-luxury-mag-names

The new L.A. Times magazine--a name hasn't been settled yet--plans to go the way of the New York Times' T and WSJ Magazine: it'll be a glossy luxury magazine. Last month, the newspaper's then-publisher, David Hiller, forced the newsroom to surrender control of the magazine to the business side.

Even though Mr. Hiller has since been pushed out of the L.A. Times, the business side is staffing up for their new magazine. Annie Gilbar, who was once a host for a show on the Home Shopping Network and an editor of InStyle, will edit the magazine. WWD reports:

The editorial team so far includes familiar names in the glossy magazine world, among others: Celebrity stylist Lori Goldstein began as fashion director on July 1 (though she is not working in the office full-time), and several former House & Garden staffers are either on staff or contributing part-time, including former Testy Tastemaker columnist Mayer Rus, contributing food editor Lora Zarubin and contributing senior editor Paul Fortune, according to several sources.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/media/newsroom-free-l-times-mag-hires-familiar-luxury-mag-names#comments Media Annie Gilbar David Hiller L.A. Times Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:37:54 -0400 John Koblin 72126 at http://www.observer.com http://www.observer.com/2008/media/l-times-un-reporter-brauchlis-wife-resigned-help-save-body

Newly named Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli's wife, Maggie Farley, the United Nations reporter for the L.A. Times, says she quit right before the paper announced layoffs in order to "save a body." And, not surprisingly, she doesn't care much for what's happening to the paper. She tells L.A. Observed's Kevin Roderick:

"I resigned last week in the hopes that it would save a body, and with all the changes in our family and at the paper, it felt like a good time to leave and try something new. I am proud to have been part of one of the largest and strongest foreign staffs in the country, and am disheartened by what has been done to our great newspaper.  read more »

]]> http://www.observer.com/2008/media/l-times-un-reporter-brauchlis-wife-resigned-help-save-body#comments Media Baltimore Sun L.A. Times Maggie Farley Marcus Brauchli Sam Zell The Washington Post Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:34:45 -0400 John Koblin 72064 at http://www.observer.com