The Los Angeles Times announced plans Friday to lay off 300 people — including 70 newsroom workers — and fold its California section into the main news pages. The moves are the latest efforts by the West’s largest paper to cope with the steep loss of advertising revenue caused by the recession and the flight of advertisers to online media outlets.
Author: OPC of America
Al Kaff Update
OPC columnist Al Kaff has graduated from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility in Westport, Conn. He is definitely making progress and is eager to get back to working on “People” items. Right now he is calling in his information to the OPC office.
NYT: “Free” Land for Iraqi Press
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki made a pledge that would have scandalized the Iraqis’ American counterparts: the government would give plots of land to thousands of journalists, for a nominal price or possibly even free.
Media Meltdown: Our Role as Journalists
It’s clear that we’re witnessing a serious failure of American journalism, but whose job is it to tell the people? We as journalists can understand the serious peril that this media meltdown poses to the American democracy and the American economy, but the average reader has no idea what is happening.
Freedom of the Press Committee Report, January 28, 2009
Since we last met in November, your committee has written some 14 letters protesting abuses of press freedom. We appealed to the rulers of Burundi, Mexico, Jordan, China, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan; and we protested the murders of five more journalists — one each in Mexico, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and two in Russia.
Freedom of the Press Committee Report, January 27, 2009
Since we last met in November, your committee has written some 14 letters protesting abuses of press freedom. We appealed to the rulers of Burundi, Mexico, Jordan, China, Kenya, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan; and we protested the murders of five more journalists — one each in Mexico, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, and two in Russia.
CPJ Blog: Murder Pushes Journalists to Request Guns
The embattled Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta suffered one more "battle casualty" when 25-year-old Anastasiya Baburova was shot and killed in downtown Moscow. Her murder seems to be the last straw for Novaya Gazeta.
More Attacks on Journalists in Sri Lanka
The BBC reports that the editor of a Sri Lankan weekly newspaper and his wife have been assaulted in Colombo in the latest of a series of attacks on journalists.
News Orgs Up in Arms Over Access to Oval Office
News organizations were caught off-guard to learn that Obama had been re-sworn in as a precautionary measure the day after the official inauguration. Who was there to photograph the event? Only four photographers including the official White House photographer, Pete Souza.
Journalism by the Numbers
Mitch Ratcliffe gives a breakdown of how much it costs to support a great reporter and and how media companies can afford this cost. Ratcliffe estimates that pricetag falls somewhere in the $180,000 range: $130,000 salary and benefits, $4,800 a year in subscriptions and other information sources, $2,500 a month in travel, $1,250 a month in legal and insurance coverage.