seems like theyre nervous about their parent company Tronc

which is the Tribune, of Chicago, which hasn’t really given them any reason to trust

first of all, dumb name, tronc, wtf.

next, they made the editors ALSO publishers which breaks so many rules of journalism

then they did weird things like try to get their execs to go to the Oscars

allegedly they took the tickets allocated to the writers and gave em to the Chicago bigwigs

then they fired a half dozen top editors

then when they realized a copy editor was married to someone they had just axed, they fired her too.

thats not exactly how you build trust.

and it’s not even journalistically sound.

hows about only fire people if they suck. dont fire them if they intimidate you or are married to someone you just canned?

it makes me doubly sad because i grew up reading Chicago journalism

and i spent four of my happiest years at the Times with many of these professionals

most of the time they were teaching me how to be professional.

the LA Times not only wanted the best writing and editing and photography and graphics and art and and and and but they also wanted it to be done correctly.

it was a slow process and not everyone was on board but for the most part the goal was simple: dont fuck up and you wont if you have the proper goals

accuracy was the properest of goals.

not speed.

i remember the day Michael Jackson died. a bunch of outlets were saying he was dead and maybe he was dead but the whole world was waiting for the ultimate umpire of a Los Angeles tragedy to make the call.

our site nearly went down because so many people were refreshing their browsers.

at first we thought we were getting hacked or it was a virus because the traffic was crippling to the mighty site.

and when the news finally was published it was so bittersweet because finally we knew the truth

but the truth was so so so so sad.

but it was the truth, which is all that matters inside that building.

tronc fucked up in major ways in their relationship with the LA Times

they should have seen this coming, they should have seen that they created this.

but alas, they have different goals

and the satisfaction of the hard working and veteran LA Times staff has not been one of them.

which was so dumb it’s hard to believe.