Monday, November 29, 2004

KNX Deteriorates Under New Management

KNX had problems before new management came in, but the new management has not improved matters.
Even before George Nicolaus was removed, KNX had gradually cut into its news presentations with special hours and features. It failed to recognize that the reason listeners tuned in, for the most part, was to get the hourly news and nothing else.
Now, new management has cut back the CBS national news at the top of the hour to three minutes from five, and it has tied up much of the middle of the day with business news, and the weekend with computer news, food news. etc. For the most part, it gives no synopses of state and local news after the CBS news, mentioning just one story at the outset rather than three or four as it used to..
I wonder what their readership surveys show. They must indicate that the numbers of listeners are down. The station is simply not doing what it used to do quite well -- give the significant news of the hour every hour -- and it has slipped way below its sister station in San Francisco, KCBS, in this respect..
It's time to let KCBS know of its shortcomings.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Sports Mixed With Business

Entry of Nov. 28.

On Thanksgiving Day, The Times shocked many of its readers by sticking the Sports Section at the back of its Business Section. Longtime readers of The Times had some trouble finding Sports, and there were letters from readers deploring the arrangement, a low-quality precedent..
In many ways, the Tribune owners are cutting back The Times. There has also been announced plans to move the Washington bureaus of the various Tribune-owned papers in with one another. It can't be too much longer before the same thing is done with the outstanding Times foreign bureaus.
All this shows, the Tribune is not up to maintaining the standards of The Times. The newspaper ought to be sold to California owners now, before further deterioration is allowed.

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Thursday, November 25, 2004

Welcome

It's become obvious that the Chicago Tribune's purchase of the Los Angeles Times should be undone. It would be desirable for the paper to be restored to California ownership.

Under the control of Chicago executives, the L.A. Times has been diminished. Circulation has fallen more than 200,000 daily. A shrillness has been introduced on the editorial pages that denigrates the newspaper. There is a one-sidedness in the Calendar section that fails to examine the full dimensions of cultural issues in American life. The sports section has been ordered to undertake page cuts.

Jealousy in Chicago following the L.A. Times' winning of five Pulitzers led quickly to an order from Tribune executives that The Times cut its staff. The Tribune's own appointees, editor John Carroll and managing editor Dean Baquet have resisted these but been overwhelmed.

It's time for someone with sufficient resources to tender an offer for The Times.