Oscar Spotlight a Dim One for Hometown L.A. Times

While old-fashioned investigative journalism took center stage in Los Angeles at the Oscars Sunday evening, hometown reporters for the L.A. Times found themselves scrambling to cover the event. The Times had been allocated six passes for entry to the Dolby Theater – essential access to tell the ...

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CEO Jack Griffin Is Out At Tribune

Tribune Publishing has parted ways with its CEO Jack Griffin, I’ve learned. In a fast-moving turn of events, unusually quick by corporate standards, newly minted Tribune Publishing board chairman Michael Ferro has orchestrated Griffin’s ouster — and directed the choice of his successor. Tribune ...

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Newsonomics: The Financialization of News Is Dimming the Lights of the Local Press

There’s a nice scene in Hail, Caesar!, the Coen brothers’ latest movie, in which one Hollywood character astutely observes: “We’re not talking about money — we’re talking about economics.” Indeed. This year’s crazy-making U.S. presidential election further illuminates and blurs that divide. ...

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Santa Ana Showdown: Tribune’s Bid for Southern California

  Companion column: Michael Ferro immediately redefines Tribune Publishing’s chairman role   Today, in the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Santa Ana, Calif., the Orange County Register – for the second time—begins to emerge from bankruptcy. There may not be much ...

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Michael Ferro Immediately Redefines Tribune Publishing’s Chairman Role

Companion column: Santa Ana Showdown: Tribune’s Bid for Southern California   Michael Ferro’s new title at Tribune Publishing is “non-executive chair.” Since Ferro’s company, Merrick Media, bought a major stake in Tribune earlier this month, he is behaving more like an executive ...

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Billionaire Bingo, MP11 Remover & The Missing Paper Finder: Little-Known 2011 News Tech Inventions

The Infinity Stopper: The Internet has just gotten too big for its britches. It is spilling over into our bedrooms, through tablets and smartphones. It assaults us in elevators. It even threatens the passivity of our living-room TV experience, a particular hazard to our culture as Americans ...

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Now at (Fire) Sale Prices: A Few Daily Newspapers…and Maybe More

The deep freeze in the U.S. newspaper market thawed a bit over the last couple of weeks. There really hasn't been much of a market for metro newspapers for almost half a decade. With advertising revenue down now 21 quarters in a row, it's near-impossible to fix a value on newspaper properties. ...

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