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Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 11/1/2008 11:27:09 AM
Title: LAT no longer has a Washington bureau
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
This is a memo from a Los Angeles Times staffer to eight colleagues. At the source's request, I've deleted names

Sent: Fri 10/31/2008 2:29 PM
From: [Name removed]
To: [Names removed]
Subject: The worst yet: Tea with Doyle [McManus, LAT DC bureau chief]

Gang,
Well, let’s just say it's bad in every way it can be bad. Basically, the LAT no longer has a Washington bureau and we will be under the control of the Tribune Co., much like McClatchy is run. The much-touted 3-man committee was basically used to vote the LAT down 2-1 every time. The formal announcement will be made on Nov. 7, people will be informed they will be laid off on the 18th, and the new bureau begins on the 19th. Numbers are still fudgey, but 8 LAT layoffs seems to be the working number.

At the end of the session, Doyle basically put it simply: This was a well-orchestrated corporate campaign to sever the Washington bureau from the LAT. He appeared quite sheepish, since in hindsight this was all pretty clear...as he noted, Zell's rant in Feb. has pretty much come true.
"It's not the LAT that is running this process. That has become increasingly clear."

Doyle said Tom McCarthy will not be the bureau chief, and it's unclear if he's going to want to stay in the new organization, which is still being worked out. Tom was the only person who didn't join us in the conference room. Doyle doesn't know who the new bureau chief will be, though Cissy Baker's name keeps getting mentioned. Some guy (gal?) named Kerry something, the national editor of the ChiTrib, has been mentioned, but Kerry claims he's heard no such thing.

The structure is basically going to be the same as McClatchy:
19 reporters & 5 editors as a core "national staff"
10 reporters as "regional reporters", divided this way:
2 from LAT
2 from ChiTrib
2 from BaltSun
1 from other small papers

...Schmitt asked whether decisions on who is staying were really made on merit. Doyle acknowledged that they weren’t. Basically Russ/Gerry/Gremillon came up with a list of beats, then moved reporters into slots. "The names that were left over were left over." He said the people making the decision largely were making judgments about "people they don't know and who’s work they've never read." Doyle added that the decisions were "somewhat arbitrary."

Schmitt then asked why they couldn't say who was going to be laid off, and Doyle said he'd been forbidden from telling people. Asked why, Doyle said, "Basically, to be inhumane." He said corporate types don’t want to have to answer questions from people who are laid off, so announcing layoffs on the 18th was the most pain-free for them. Though he also noted that the LAT is telegraphing these, and if you want to talk in any more detail, Tom & Doyle will likely tell you what your future is.
If you're not on the list, and you want to volunteer to leave, it would be good to tell Doyle by Nov. 13, so he can fill your spot with another LAT body.

I asked some questions about how the LAT leadership feels about no longer having a DC bureau, and he said they were upset. I tried to press him on whether this means we no longer have any protection from L.A., and he basically said that's the case. We’re run by Chicago, though he said if Chicago really wanted to make the DC bureau any smaller, they could have done it this time (though he also noted that the only place the LAT won anything at all in this discussion was preventing Chicago from making the bureau even smaller).

So as I said: bad, bad, bad in every way. Everyone came out shell shocked.

Enjoy your weekend!

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