By T.J. Simers
It has been two days since Kevin Merida announced he’s stepping down as newsroom boss of the Los Angeles Times. Months since I suggested such a move.
I haven’t’ received a phone call, email or text asking me to become newsroom editor of the Times, and wouldn’t that make some people nervous? I’d probably hire Kevin Malone, a.k.a. Dodger Boy knowing how good his heart is now to direct newspaper charities.
I thought I’d at least get a call from Patrick Soon-Shiong to discuss why he forced Merida to quit. I think it’s fairly obvious how much the operation has crumbled, but I might have had the chance to advocate the same demise for the sports editor.
I would hope Patrick already knows, like his Lakers, the Times is disappointing in so many ways. You think an outsider can fix this?
The top commanders in his employ have already been a major disappointment. How about someone who has come to know the Times intimately and what jurors/readers thought of the product in three downtown LA trials?
Let’s just start by taking sports as an example, a vital section for a newspaper or Internet presentation. Once considered a champion in the field of journalism, it is only a shell of itself.
Your newspaper product now is a joke, your top sports columnist either making a prediction or public apology for making a prediction as he does again today online with undoubtedly the same column running in the newspaper tomorrow,
He killed UCLA basketball coach Mick Cronin earlier this week for not being accountable, and yet the Times doesn’t hold him accountable for being wrong about USC, the Dodgers, the Lakers, UCLA and the Rams. Strike one, as he would write, strike two, strike three, strike four and strike five.
Do you expect readers to support such a lack of credibility by paying for a subscription?
How has the hiring of Tyler Tynes, Arash Markazi. and the lack of institutional accountability in allowing Plaschke and Dylan Hernandez to work so little impacted the LA Times’ credibility? You want Helene Elliott to be the prime voice of your sports section?
The Times’ sports editor has killed the section with early deadlines and a lack of reporter accountability. Why should anyone expect anyone to spend their money on the newspaper as poorly as the Times covers sports. And if they cover sports poorly, they are undoubtedly doing the same in other parts of the newspaper.
The online product stinks with a lack imagination and inability to take advantage of the great talent that is there. Columnist Steve Lopez’s work on growing old is genius, but his work on the homeless was a waste of newsprint most of the time. What do the readers of the Times care about? Not the homeless as breakfast storytelling goes, no matter how many awards he wins or gets movies made.
The Times has lost its way in understanding its readership. Culture critic Tyler Tynes is certainly not the answer and yet he’s allowed to function as he pleases and the Times’ can’t gain traction online.
I like to point out the Times has lost over a million subscribers since the newspaper told me to stop writing a Page 2 sports column. It’s just a fact.
An editor who is no longer with the newspaper told me my job wasn’t to help the misfortunate in writing about Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.
I thought the Times lost sight of just what our jobs were while working for a community newspaper because the newspaper no longer cares for the newsstand product.
It is all about what is online so OK where’s the dedicated effort to improve online?
The Times will try another do over and I doubt the new guy or gal will get it right. A newspaper can still be important in someone’s life although the industry has been pronounced dead. A newspaper CAN BE IMPORTANT IN SOMEONE’S LIFE!
Fighting that notion and visiting with civic leaders who might have given up on the Times is where the new guy or gal should start.
What are the things that really matter to Los Angeles readers? Patrick Soon-Shiong is spending his time and brain matter on saving mankind, and while maybe not as important as who will coach the Chargers, don’t worry I don’t think I will be getting that call from Soon-Shiong.
We all have our jobs to do—-just better—before Soon-Shiong sells to a hedge fund interested in really putting the newspaper out of business.