By T.J. Simers

I give up. Maybe the last straw was the hiring of someone from the University of Washington Monday to serve as USC athletic director.

It was news to the LA Times, reporter Brady McCollough writing in the Times’ story: “ESPN’s Pete Thamel was the first to report the hire.”

I thought everyone from ESPN had just been fired.

This was USC, located in the LA Times’ backyard and former sports editor Bill Dwyre would have gone newspaper crazy asking why none of his reporters didn’t have the story first.

Dwyre is now moving from California to Baltimore on Sunday, and maybe that’s another reason to give up. He had the best sports department in the country for decades, great stories to tell and a passion as a really ancient journalist to keep the Times on top.

He offered to help the newspaper several times but was rebuked and ignored. On occasion they let him write in his retirement, but he was willing to return as an advisor to the sports editor, and I think it’s pretty obvious there is someone who needs help.

For one thing he would have put reporter Brady McCollough to work, McCollough showing up to write every decade or so and I wonder why the Times had no clue who was being hired as USC’s athletic director?

And it happened before 3 p.m.

The Times ran a story about the USC search for a new AD yesterday with a picture of Minnesota AD Mark Coyle as if he was now the favorite. The story mentioned a half dozen possible candidates for the post but never mentioned the woman who was named USC AD a day later.

It’s one thing to offer a horrible product, but a complete clueless whiff on a story that has now played out for months speaks to how far the sports section has slipped. And Dwyre is headed to Baltimore.

Maybe the last straw came in a twitter message Monday from former San Diego Union-Tribune sports editor Jay Posner: “I know it was exhibition and I know it’s only the Chargers but did you notice their game yesterday ended just before 7:20 and not a single word in the Times print today. Not even anything explaining why the game was played when city and state officials told people not to leave home. But we did get to read about the Angels DH split from Saturday.”

That’s the Los Angeles Chargers, Mr. San Diego, and the LA Times should care about them now.

The expectation, of course from Posner was that I would write about it and criticize the LA Times which doesn’t live up to Union-Tribune standards.

Then I get a series of tweets from former LA Daily News columnist Tom Hoffarth on Monday about the inconsistencies and poor coverage in the Times. He concludes one message by writing: “TJSimerspage2 may have thoughts on how this also took a full page of Sunday’s tiny print edition.”

First of all, it is “tjpage2.blog.”

But I have given up. The LA Times’ sports section as it appears in the newspaper is an abomination. The LA Times no longer cares what they deliver in the newspaper, circulation dwindling and fewer and fewer people to read a blog who even know what I am referring to when I write.

The best story to appear in the newspaper in recent memory was Dwyre’s tribute to columnist Jim Murray. And Dwyre is moving to Baltimore, no more of our Lazy Dog lunches every few weeks to discuss the good old days.

They no longer exist, the full-page story in the LA Times sports section with pictures recently in a column by Helene Elliott on former UCLA golfer Lilia Vu.

I read the first nine paragraphs, a LA County record for reading that , much of an Elliott column without quitting, and still don’t know why she wrote it or why the LA Times used its entire first page to showcase it.

The simple explanation is the Times doesn’t care.

Speaking of turning off readers, I offered to return and work for nothing except for a donation to a children’s hospital, but never heard back from Publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong. Former Times’ editor Davan Maharaj told me it wasn’t my job to help the misfortunate, so maybe that remains the Times’ community policy.

But if the Times really is trying to kill the printed newspaper, why not bring back Page 2 to finish the job?

I’ve been sending my blogs by email to the laboratory where Soon-Shiong is searching for the cure for cancer. Soon-Shiong is registered as a “friend” on my twitter account, but apparently we’re not close friends.

I’ve changed. I didn’t make fun of Elliott’s column earlier because frankly I’ve lost interest. If that’s the story the LA Times sports editor thinks is going to rock its readership, suggesting alternatives is a lost cause.

Beyond lost subscribers, there’s no outcry from folks in Los Angeles about how their hometown paper gets worse day by day. They don’t care.

I’ve joined that club.

By T.J. Simers

After hearing how negative public reaction convinced the executives at the Las Vegas Review-Journal to bring back box scores, I was curious if the LA Times received any flak when it got rid of box scores.

I’m being told the newspaper received more than 7,000 negative emails, a staggering number when you think about people actually sitting down to express their dismay to nameless, faceless editors.

I’ve also been told the newspaper had more than 10,000 cancelled subscriptions.

I welcome a call from sports editor Iliana Romero if those numbers are not accurate and will say nothing about her reputation among her staff for not telling the truth.

But more than ever, it begs the question why did the newspaper eliminate the box scores when there was absolutely no pressing need to do so? And how does the person who made that decision to irritate readers in these troubled newspaper times still have a job?

Wikipedia says the newspaper, which represents a city as large as Los Angeles and how many millions is that, has a circulation of about 141,000.

If true, the newspaper has bigger issues than box scores.

I’d start with management.

By T.J. Simers

Had lunch with Bill Dwyre, the former sports editor of the Times, when it was regarded as a newspaper.

We were joined by Steve Dilbeck, a former LA Daily News sports columnist, and Deep Throat, who still works at the Los Angeles Times and requires anonimity.

Deep Throat told me to lay off the Times because the newspaper is already dead. He said no one cares, and that includes the LA Times sports staff.

Deep Throat also explained to me “wake and bake” in describing one of the Times’ less-than productive writers, and that explains a lot, because Dwyre, Dilbeck and I had no idea what wake and bake meant.

He/she also provided a primer on why the Times stinks. Deep Throat explained that previous owners sold the presses because they knew the newspaper was going to disappear so there would be no need of presses in time. Just earlier deadlines.

I keep asking Patrick Soon-Shiong to act like a newspaper owner and buy presses; apparently I should be telling him to be a good online newspaper owner. He’s failed there, as well.

Given the changes in the sports section the sports editor should have upgraded the website and used her best writers to excite everyone. But It’s the same old website and she has not put her better writers to work. Odd behavior.

There is only one thing that matters, Deep Throat said, conversions.

Conversions are all about writing interesting stories and within an hour after a story appears online, getting someone to click and subscribe to the LA Times.

This explains why there is less and less criticism mentioned in the Times and almost no negative stories. The Times doesn’t believe negative stories and criticism of local teams sell, so therefore no conversions. The editors want more and more soft stories.

As Deep Throat explained, now every writer spends most of their time trying to figure out what earns conversions. News is no longer a priority.

The sports editor gives every writer a list of conversions each day to embarrass those who have failed to secure any conversions. The sports editor does not like stories that are critical, thereby explaining why the next seven days will be filled with puff pieces, like homeless soccer.

Writers are not criticized for poorly written stories, only stories that fail to get people to click.

Deep Throat started waxing poetic about Ferrari’s and wooden wagons while calling us dinosaurs, and I remember when he made sense, but his conversion to company man is very unsettling.

The reason stories like blind soccer players and homeless soccer players appear on the sports pages I learned is because they hope to emotionally grab folks to subscribe, $1 for six months, knowing once they subscribe they cannot cancel until their contract expires and might forget to do so later. It’s a scam.

I wonder if conversions from paid newspaper subscribers to cancellations count. I’d like to see that number.

By T.J. Simers

Here I’ve been writing about missing box scores and a poor sports presentation only to read the LA Times internally is apparently in self-destruct mode.

Paul Feldman, an assistant foreign editor for the Times the past 20 years and packing Pulitzer Prize credentials, wrote a scathing letter to Editor Kevin Merida questioning the leadership of the company, which has been circulating through the Times’ newsroom.

Feldman has been with the Times for 40 years, and says the company’s business plan, “charging subscribers $1 for six months or seemingly doing everything within its power to ignore or hasten the death of its main revenue source, the print newspaper, is not a winning strategy.

“Given the track record, even in a period of fiscal uncertainty or worse, I’m really unsure why we should believe that the current business leadership of our company has the ability, knowledge or insight to ever make things better.”

He gets tougher as he proceeds, and keep in mind as former Times’ blogger Steve Dilbeck learned Thursday, there are no refunds to subscriptions cancelled. You have to eat the paper.

“It seems rather clear that the top editors of this enterprise have very little idea, or, frankly NO clue, how we actually function,” writes Feldman.

That’s what is being said in the sports department as well, writers openly questioning the veracity and ability of sports editor Iliana Romero. If the intent of the Times is to drive sports reader to the newspaper’s web site why hasn’t the Times done anything to upgrade the web site?

Feldman’s criticism in questioning the Times’ leadership comes from someone with a lifetime of experience, who pinpoints weaknesses in upper management.

“Speaking as one of four remaining foreign/national editors, I can report that Kevin (Merida) has met with us once, yes, just once, since he took his job here three years ago and the managing editor he hired has met with us zero times.”

The lack of accountability has become a way of life at the Times. The No. 2 guy in sports works from his home in Portland, and many of the writers in sports say they have never heard him speak. He appears on Zoom calls but does not speak. He’s offered no direction to date, his best quality the fact he was a friend previously of the sports editor.

“Another thing we don’t talk much about here,” continues Feldman in his letter, “Because management’s goal is to whack jobs and the union’s focus is to save them, is the quality and focus of our product and the management decisions that have wreaked havoc on our once revered brand.

“What kind of serious national news operation has no congressional correspondent as the debt limit crisis careened about? And what kind of serious news operation did not assign a reporter to cover the Jan. 6 insurrection until hours after the Capitol was invaded and did no staff follow-ups in subsequent days?

“Want irony? Our DC photographer, who was actually in the Capitol building at the time and helped provide coverage, apparently received a layoff notice last week.”

The Times laid off 74 copy editors recently, doing so to sidestep Union rules that would have orchestrated the layoffs based on seniority rather eliminating one overall work title. Layoffs based on seniority would have meant laying off sports culture critic Tyler R. Tynes and Angels’ reporter Sarah Valenzuela.

I withhold comment.

Feldman urges editor Merida to show some fight and “develop a cadence” with Times’ owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, “who somehow escapes scrutiny in this mess.

“We may not be able to accomplish our journalistic mission without adequate funding or revenues. But if we don’t come up with a coherent plan, we are imperiling the hundreds of millions of dollars the doctor initially invested in the Times.”

Ouch. That’s one way to get a billionaire’s attention.

“If our mission is simply to find ways to get clicks rather than adequately cover the important news of our times, what does it really matter if we succeed or fail?”

He then blisters the 24 executives who are on the Times’ mast head signifying their lofty status at the newspaper, suggesting they might be pallbearers at the Times’ funeral.

“There would be no coffin,” Feldman writes. “But simply a cremation. After all, what burns more quickly and efficiently than newsprint?”

I emailed Feldman early today to see if he still has a job. Waiting on response.

By T.J.Simers

I am flummoxed.

I don’t get what the LA Times is doing in sports, or why the owner Patrick Soon-Shiong or the editor Kevin Merida or his executive lieutenants are allowing it.

There is no reason, and I repeat no reason to make the changes they have made at this time.

An no reason whatsoever if Soon-Shiong acted as an owner of a newspaper.

We’ve been told these changes are necessary because the Times will be using presses in Riverside beginning in February.

It is July, and so we’ve been told the Sports Editor Iliano Romero wants to get readers used to what the newspaper will be like when February comes along.

“Get used to Garbage” might as well be Romero’s battle cry, four days into this major change and why didn’t Romero line up her very best to deliver the very best? So far, nothing special and she’s in Las Vegas schmoozing with sports editors from aroud the country.

Given such changes she should have remained in LA overseeing the new look, and maybe the misidentification in Tuesday’s paper of Miguel Vargas in a huge picture would never have happened.

Merida should have demanded she remain in LA, responding to the calls and emails from angry subscribers.

How about billionaire Soon-Shiong putting out the money to get the Times its own press; if he took on the responsibility to acquire a treasured icon like the Los Angeles Times, how about not running it into the ground.

Is Merida really the editor or a sad front to keep the heat off Soon-Shiong? I know he recommended Tyler R. Tynes for the job of culture critic and he’s been an unequivocal bust, but come on, does he need to kill off the entire sports’ product?

I don’t know, it has the feel of something else. The New York Times disbanded its sports department and has an online entity, the Athletic, now offering sports news. That was shocking to hear, but New York Times sports was never anything all that special.

It ran a big sports section every Monday, big pictures and long stories and doesn’t that sound familiar, but spotty coverage otherwise. Several columnists won Pulitzers, a large part because they were writing in New York with the heft of the Times behind them.

This week they are disbanding a department with 35 people. This was a move in the making, a staff left to shrink and now shifting for content to the Athletic, who recently laid off a number of employees.

The LA Times recently laid off 74 copy editors, and now the lament is the newspaper has to have early deadlines because it doesn’t have enough copy editors. New York Times all over?

If the LA Times can get rid of the newspaper, it won’t have to pay for newsprint, leasing presses, or pay truck drivers to get the newspapers out.

So far, they are doing a good job of getting rid of the newspaper. They ignored the Angels for years and this entire season but two of the first four days have been dedicated on the front of sports to showcasing the Angels’ Ohtani.

I love Bill Shaikin’s work and Dylan Hernandez’s columns, but they went weak-kneed on everyone in Wednesday’s newspaper. Hernandez can speak Japanese and tried, and tried, and tried to get something out of Ohtani on Media Day at the All-Star game.

At best, it’s a good inside column or one of many front-page sports elements featured in sports as we remember sports. But Romero scheduled it a week ago and informative or not it was going to get the big picture treatment on sports’ most important page.

News no longer matters in the newspaper.

Shaikin had a good idea, offering the All-Stars an opportunity to make a recruiting pitch to Ohtani. Shaikin tried and tried and got nowhere, the story inside at best or maybe the better decision not to run it.

But what’s confounding is the Times’ willingness to irritate the people who are paying for the newspaper.

They wrote a story online telling readers “How to watch the Home Run Derby,” but then the Times forgot to cover it.

They offered a staff written story on Mookie Betts and the home run derby from the All-Star game two days after it happened.

They didn’t have a word in Wednesday’s newspaper about the All Star Game even though the game ended before 9 p.m., which would have allowed the newspaper plenty of time to get it in the paper had they not established the phony 3 p.m. deadline.

They intentionally frustrated newspaper readers!

How can Soon-Shiong look at his newspaper or his laboratory associates who still might be reading the newspaper and feel any pride in ownership?

How can Merida accept the gibberish he is hearing from his sports editor to explain such a lousy sports product?

And it’s going to get worse, or maybe that’s the plan.

By T.J. Simers

It’s about as bad news as you can get in the newspaper business while still employed.

Alden Capital, a hedge fund based in New York, has bought the San Diego Union-Tribune from LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Given recent layoffs and changes, is Patrick getting ready to dump the Times?

Alden has a well-earned reputation for getting rid of employees and bleeding a newspaper dry.

If you have a strong stomach and want to read about the complete devastation of the San Diego newspaper before it happens, check out a story in the Atlantic online in Nov. 2021 entitled, “Secretive Hedge Fund Gutting Newsrooms.”

I know about Alden because I went up against Alden in LA Superior Court. Alden was on the hook for the LA Times legal debt and Alden paid my attorney more than $1 million after nearly 10 years of litigation and three trial victories. They still owe millions in legal costs, which they are appealing. I hope they do well in San Diego.

But they are also known for not paying their bills, showing up at the papers they own, or having any problem firing successful journalists.

Alden will now be running the San Diego newspaper, undoubtedly putting an end to the journalism careers of some real pros. Two days after Alden bought the Chicago Tribune, employees were offered buyouts.

Between 2015 and 2017, Alden owning nearly 200 newspapers, laid off 36% of the workforce. I don’t know up to date numbers because I was in court.

As for Soon-Shiong, is this the beginning of the end for the LA Times, selling off a piece like the U-T, or a chance to focus on the Times’ property now? He still doesn’t own a press to print the Times, is in negotiations with the newspaper’s union for a new contract and no one seems to be throwing him a parade.

He has reportedly said he would like to have his daughter, who already works at the newspaper, run the show. The way editor Kevin Merida has fallen down on the job the prevailing opinion inside is he’s just going through the motions. Times for a change in leadership?

Many of the Times’ employees have feared the day when Patrick runs out of patience or realizes the Times is a money pit, fearing the unknown or Alden more than Patrick.

I know I regularly pass on my blogs to the laboratory where Patrick works on the cure for cancer to help as much as I can even though he’s registered as a tjpage2.blog follower. I wish he would also work on the cure for dying newspapers in his spare time.

If improving the newspaper is something that matters to Patrick, I would tell him former sports editor Bill Dwyre is contemplating a move elsewhere. And as messed up as sports is in the Times, Patrick ought to swoop in and try to keep Dwyre here a little longer to steady things.

As for the near future, you will get a front-page story in the newspaper tomorrow on the number of Black baseball players in the major leagues, tied to MLB’s move to take baseball out of Oakland, which has the largest Black representation city-wise. The story is written by Bill Shaikin, who writes about Dontrelle Willis, and I love Shaikin’s work, but I have a problem with this.

If the newspaper runs Shaikin’s story as the main piece on the front of sports that will be more than 18 hours after it was posted on the newspaper’s web site. The sports editor is urging newspaper readers to go online and get what they missed, but an 18-hour head start on the newspaper’s showcase story neuters the impact of getting it so bold and big on the front of the sports page a day later. Sports is now dull enough without taking away its daily splash.

Just my opinion.

By T.J. Simers

First reports have the LA Times taking 300 disgruntled phone calls Sunday after the sports section went magazine style and lost box scores. The sports editor Iliana Romero suggested folks should go to latimes.com to get box scores, but the staff forgot to post them.

I couldn’t find Sunday’s box scores Monday morning on the website, so this is your new LA Times.

I’d suggest calling Iliana Romero but she’s on an all-expenses paid junket to Las Vegas where she intends to buy dinner on the Times’ credit card tonight for at least five former Times’ sports executives. That’s probably the equivalent of a salary for a copy editor laid off two weeks ago.

I’d suggest reaching out to No. 2 in sports, but ever since he was hired he has remained in Portland. I guess he’s afraid of Los Angeles traffic.

It’s a little surprising the No. 2 hasn’t been invited to Las Vegas for the Associated Press Sports Editor convention; three of the freeloaders dining with Iliana in Vegas tonight were former No. 2s at the Times.

Maybe they don’t want him networking for a new job. I hear the New York Times has openings.

The lack of Times’ leadership, of course, goes all the way up to editor Kevin Merida who is allowing all this on his watch.

The Times has already busted the 3 pm set-in-stone deadline for writers, allowing coverage of the U.S. Women’s Open in Monday’s paper and the drafting of Paul Skenes which both happened after 3.

However, there was no mention of Skenes, the No. 1 player selected in the MLB Draft, growing up in Lake Forest or going to school at El Toro High School. The Times spelled his name, “PaulSkenes,” in the newspaper; I’m sure family and friends loved that. I think I hear the circulation department’s phone ringing.

Next week features on soccer players Ali Riley and Alyssa Thompson are planned.

I just got an update, despite the suggestion that latimes.com will give you everything you can’t get in the newspaper, box scores will not be run online. As far as the Times is concerned, they no longer exist.

***

The New York Times is closing down its sports department. They got rid of box scores a long time ago.

They bought the sports writing site, the “Athletic,” for $550 million and will be using the Athletic’s content to present sports in the newspaper and online. The Athletic publishes more than 100 sports stories a day. The Times says the Athletic has 400 journalists covering 200 professional teams around the world.

Instant information via social media has doomed newspapers. A 3 pm deadline, which the Times just instituted, drives that point home when subscribers open their newspapers 15 to 16 hours later.

By T.J. Simers

My first impressions of new-look Times’ sports section:

Picture of Ohtani looks great.

Was this some kind of announcement the newspaper will no longer ignore the Angels, making Ohtani poster child for change? I wonder if they waited for Ohtani to come to LA to take his picture; you know the Times doesn’t travel to Angels’ games.

Why didn’t they have Japanese-speaking Dylan Hernandez do an exclusive interview with Ohtani to go along with the poster and really kick off the new-look sports section?

You know this was the best the newspaper had to offer to showcase the new look to make a positive impression. Let’s see how it goes a week from Thursday.

The number of enhanced and large photos assure the Times’ photographers will win lots of awards.

The big pictures are nice, but whatever happened to Life magazine and Sports Illustrated, which featured great photos?

The back-to-back artsy-craftsy photos of players’ shadows on D-5 and D-6, though, probably means the photogs have hit their monthly quota..

I worry about AI creeping into the Times with all the big photos.

I’m not surprised Bill Plaschke has become the D-7 columnist.

Received a tweet from blog follower Jeff Brosnan who said, “For me, all they needed to add in was the box scores page and it would have been fine.” Keep in mind this was just a preview of changes. Starting tomorrow no results will make the paper if submitted after 3. It will be interesting to see how the newspaper covers the playoffs should the Dodgers or Lakers make them. No worries now about the Angels.

The sports editor wrote a letter saying, “I am honored to continue highlighting the incredible talent of the L.A. Times sports staff.” If she was already highlighting it in the newspaper why make these changes? I looked at the bylines and didn’t notice the assembled incredible talent. The first bylines shown in the new section were that of Dan Woike, Kevin Baxter and Helene Elliott—-same boring hacks.

She also told subscribers “Our new layout highlights our best, most ambitious sports journalism—distinctive work you cannot find anywhere else.” Well, you can find it online and that’s really what their hope is so they can stop printing the newspaper.

Taking out box scores and game stories an replacing them with big pictures seems hardly to be “ambitious.”

The way the sports section was laid out, the top two stories on a Sunday morning were the sports editor’s letter, and letters to the editor.

They gave you a Dodgers-Angels’ game story Sunday morning, but beginning next week if a game starts after 3 p.m. they will not. As the sports editor wrote in her letter, “You no longer will see box scores, standings and traditional game stories, but those will be replaced by more innovative reporting.” We’ve already seen a peek of that, Sam Farmer writing about Rufus the Hawk from Wimbledon, Baxter writing about a Uganda catcher fielding tires and Tyler R. Tynes focusing on the manager of a Miami nightclub in the Heat’s arena—you know, like the Forum Club.

They better hope Associated Press keeps writing.

I don’t see Jorge Castillo’s byline very often, but he did a really good job of research in retelling, “For the Dodgers, to try, try again is worth it for Ohtani.”

New-look Times has three soccer stories, same as old-look Times most days.

Wham, bam, I get a second Jorge Castillo story in the same section. Maybe the news the Times is making is, “Castillo Replaces Box Scores.”