End of the LA Weekly
November 30, 2017 4:18 PM Subscribe
The LA Weekly's sale to a mysterious buyer is completed with immediate layoffs of most of the editorial staff. With the deaths of the Gothamist family of sites (previously) and the end of the print edition of the Village Voice (previously), we can now add the impending end of the venerable LA Weekly. Except, who the heck is Semanal Media? Meanwhile, in related depressing OC Weekly news...
The LA Weekly site posted a hell of a column on itself last night: Who Owns L.A. Weekly?
The new owners of L.A. Weekly don’t want you to know who they are. They are hiding from you. They’ve got big black bags with question marks covering their big bald heads.posted by zachlipton at 4:39 PM on November 30, 2017 [36 favorites]
These new owners just laid off nine hardworking journalists. Why? For sport? To start anew? To fulfill a blood vendetta that is centuries old?
Maybe they have a good reason. Maybe they don’t.
We don’t know. You don’t know. No one knows but them.
Who owns this publication?
It’s a fair question.
Who is benefiting?
You deserve to know.
Who owns L.A. Weekly?
I just started listening to podcasts from Katherine Spiers and April Wolfe, now formerly of LA Weekly. Hope they and all the other alums land on their feet. And fuck, this war on journalism.
posted by rodlymight at 5:15 PM on November 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 5:15 PM on November 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
this war on journalism.
Except this is only war where the people in the profession are the ones who were their own enemies. If you are a journalist and you do not know what is going down in your own newsroom, you are not all that.
As I keep saying, journalism has already lost. The war was over years ago, and journalists lost the game, the battle, and the war. There were plenty of warning signs, and there were desperate and alarmed people (such as me, hello!) who pointed out the obvious from the top of their lungs. It all fell on deaf ears.
I have said it again and again and again, but what do you expect of a profession that promoted people such as Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, and Bill O'Reilly? Or Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair?
It has always been a hot mess where basic concepts such as objectivity and facts were never defined.
If journalists were disciplined and understood they were supposed to be soldiers in an intellectual war, none of these things would be happening. They cribbed from press releases, allowed image consultants and PR firms to control the story, and drooled over celebrities as they completely ignored the dispossessed. They happily let enemy forces into their fortresses via Trojan horse because it seemed to save a few bucks and more legwork. Too much propaganda and too many hoaxes infected their product. One or two genuine stories doesn't cut it.
Now come the latecomers with no long-term memory crying about a war on journalism -- that ship has sailed a long time ago.
What you are merely seeing now are the corpses being dragged off the battlefield.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 5:41 PM on November 30, 2017 [16 favorites]
Except this is only war where the people in the profession are the ones who were their own enemies. If you are a journalist and you do not know what is going down in your own newsroom, you are not all that.
As I keep saying, journalism has already lost. The war was over years ago, and journalists lost the game, the battle, and the war. There were plenty of warning signs, and there were desperate and alarmed people (such as me, hello!) who pointed out the obvious from the top of their lungs. It all fell on deaf ears.
I have said it again and again and again, but what do you expect of a profession that promoted people such as Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, and Bill O'Reilly? Or Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair?
It has always been a hot mess where basic concepts such as objectivity and facts were never defined.
If journalists were disciplined and understood they were supposed to be soldiers in an intellectual war, none of these things would be happening. They cribbed from press releases, allowed image consultants and PR firms to control the story, and drooled over celebrities as they completely ignored the dispossessed. They happily let enemy forces into their fortresses via Trojan horse because it seemed to save a few bucks and more legwork. Too much propaganda and too many hoaxes infected their product. One or two genuine stories doesn't cut it.
Now come the latecomers with no long-term memory crying about a war on journalism -- that ship has sailed a long time ago.
What you are merely seeing now are the corpses being dragged off the battlefield.
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 5:41 PM on November 30, 2017 [16 favorites]
Talk about victim-blaming. This is not the fault of journalists, this is just what capitalism does. It eats itself.
. for the LA Weekly
posted by sockermom at 6:20 PM on November 30, 2017 [28 favorites]
. for the LA Weekly
posted by sockermom at 6:20 PM on November 30, 2017 [28 favorites]
On the other hand, it was capitalism that also created (corporate) journalism. The invisible hand on both ends.
posted by storybored at 6:31 PM on November 30, 2017
posted by storybored at 6:31 PM on November 30, 2017
If journalists were disciplined and understood they were supposed to be soldiers in an intellectual war, none of these things would be happening.
The following remarks were apparently made by John Swinton in 1880, then the preeminent New York journalist, probably one night in during that same year. Swinton was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
"There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
"The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
"We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
(Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.)
Ya sure about who's fighting what war?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:36 PM on November 30, 2017 [13 favorites]
The following remarks were apparently made by John Swinton in 1880, then the preeminent New York journalist, probably one night in during that same year. Swinton was the guest of honour at a banquet given him by the leaders of his craft. Someone who knew neither the press nor Swinton offered a toast to the independent press. Swinton outraged his colleagues by replying:
"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
"There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
"The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
"We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
(Source: Labor's Untold Story, by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais, published by United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, NY, 1955/1979.)
Ya sure about who's fighting what war?
posted by rough ashlar at 6:36 PM on November 30, 2017 [13 favorites]
What did in alternative weeklies was the death of classified advertising. That's not a very glamorous story, but it's the truth.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:43 PM on November 30, 2017 [29 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:43 PM on November 30, 2017 [29 favorites]
It has always been a hot mess where basic concepts such as objectivity and facts were never defined.
journalism, even american journalism specifically, is not ruled by a centralized guild or trade organization. and it's a damn good thing there's no one person orchestrating journalists in some kind of "intellectual war," as you put it, or enforcing one standard of objectivity. that's not what good journalism is or should be. in fact, that's a caricature of what right wingers think journalism is.
They cribbed from press releases, allowed image consultants and PR firms to control the story, and drooled over celebrities as they completely ignored the dispossessed.
"they"? who they? for every tmz reporter or bill o'reilly, there are also excellent journalists doing excellent work, like, for instance the LA Weekly's own work on the grim sleeper. or, more timely, what the washington post is doing to the trump administration right now.
saying journalism writ large has sold out and been compromised is not a constructive way to look at it in my opinion. good journalism is not a means to achieve a particular political end. it's a tool that democracy generally needs to continue working, and a lot of people are still doing it well, despite the attacks from all sides.
posted by wibari at 7:18 PM on November 30, 2017 [24 favorites]
journalism, even american journalism specifically, is not ruled by a centralized guild or trade organization. and it's a damn good thing there's no one person orchestrating journalists in some kind of "intellectual war," as you put it, or enforcing one standard of objectivity. that's not what good journalism is or should be. in fact, that's a caricature of what right wingers think journalism is.
They cribbed from press releases, allowed image consultants and PR firms to control the story, and drooled over celebrities as they completely ignored the dispossessed.
"they"? who they? for every tmz reporter or bill o'reilly, there are also excellent journalists doing excellent work, like, for instance the LA Weekly's own work on the grim sleeper. or, more timely, what the washington post is doing to the trump administration right now.
saying journalism writ large has sold out and been compromised is not a constructive way to look at it in my opinion. good journalism is not a means to achieve a particular political end. it's a tool that democracy generally needs to continue working, and a lot of people are still doing it well, despite the attacks from all sides.
posted by wibari at 7:18 PM on November 30, 2017 [24 favorites]
The Weekly chain fucked me over hard when I was a full-time freelancer. Oh, man, the endless dicking I took from those people! In fairness, a lot of the worst dickery was just corporate callousness from the big bosses back East, and some of the editors I worked with locally were good souls. But some of the So Cal people were real shits too.
I finally got out of the business a few years ago and I still can't help sneering, every time I drive past the Weekly office. But I grew up reading that paper and it still breaks my heart to see 'em fall apart. Alt weeklies were my life, for years and years.
Fuck you, LA Weekly. And thanks.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:30 PM on November 30, 2017 [9 favorites]
I finally got out of the business a few years ago and I still can't help sneering, every time I drive past the Weekly office. But I grew up reading that paper and it still breaks my heart to see 'em fall apart. Alt weeklies were my life, for years and years.
Fuck you, LA Weekly. And thanks.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:30 PM on November 30, 2017 [9 favorites]
Man that newspaper was indispensable when I moved to LA from Bumblesticks, CA way, way back in the day. I learned a ton about the city, and where and how to spend my time in it. Every Thursday afternoon we’d all hunch over fresh copies at the Espresso Bar in Pasadena and make plans for shows, and read the comics, and whatever else. I still look forward to Marc Haefle’s occasional radio bit on KPCC. His city hall reporting in the Weekly was aces. Probably the best in town.
It’s been a long time since I was a regular reader, however (moved on, aged up, the internet), but it’s still sad to see it go, especially like this.
posted by notyou at 7:55 PM on November 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
It’s been a long time since I was a regular reader, however (moved on, aged up, the internet), but it’s still sad to see it go, especially like this.
posted by notyou at 7:55 PM on November 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
butwow,,,,,never read the comments. The OC is full of racist shitheads as ever.
posted by lalochezia at 8:00 PM on November 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by lalochezia at 8:00 PM on November 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
Jill Stewart was my editor at the LA Weekly and she was brilliant.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:20 PM on November 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by Ideefixe at 9:20 PM on November 30, 2017 [3 favorites]
When I moved to LA in the late 90s, we had the New Times and the LA Weekly and I read them both religiously. The New Times disappeared in the early 2000s, and now who knows what has happened to the Weekly.
posted by mogget at 9:35 PM on November 30, 2017
posted by mogget at 9:35 PM on November 30, 2017
Lalo Alcarez posted an RIP on his fb page.
posted by brujita at 9:52 PM on November 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by brujita at 9:52 PM on November 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
So the new owners, whoever they are, installed OC Weekly's opinion editor, Brian Calle, to run the paper. Calle previously wrote a column with Authur Laffer praising Putin for annexing Crimea and comparing Putin's approval ratings to Obama's. Which...simply being awful is an easier explanation than any conspiracies, but that's weird, right?
posted by zachlipton at 10:58 PM on November 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 10:58 PM on November 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
Years ago, I heard an interesting talk from the National Press Club, about the concept of journalistic objectivity and its history. They said that it's pretty new, and people used to think it was completely natural that a newspaper primarily advanced the interests or politics of its publisher. But, in the 18th and 19th Century, there were many newspapers - like a dozen or more, in large cities - and there was a diversity of interests represented. People with a strong desire to find out what was really going on could read all of them, or, at least, several. There were papers representing all the political parties, rich people and business, labor. This, obviously, won't work the same when there are only a few conglomerates controlling all publications.
But it was never the case that every story was represented. As the idea of objectivity advanced, I think journalists did a pretty strong job of trying to meet it - in what was published. But why did it take decades for a front-page story about, for example, redlining black neighborhoods to deny home loans, to reach print? And of course the same question applies to what's coming out now about sexual harassment and exploitation among the powerful.
You can be as careful and as neutral as you like, as a reporter, but how is it decided what is important to report? And what is something we all know but that we shouldn't talk about? There are lots of reasons that things aren't reported. Our media has decided that you aren't really that interested in world news. You'd rather hear about US politics and read lifestyle stories. If there's a plane crash, the first thing you should know is, were any Americans on it? That's probably driven by commercial interests. If the focus group shows that people change the channel when you start talking about Zimbabwe, well, they call it the news business.
posted by thelonius at 1:39 AM on December 1, 2017 [4 favorites]
But it was never the case that every story was represented. As the idea of objectivity advanced, I think journalists did a pretty strong job of trying to meet it - in what was published. But why did it take decades for a front-page story about, for example, redlining black neighborhoods to deny home loans, to reach print? And of course the same question applies to what's coming out now about sexual harassment and exploitation among the powerful.
You can be as careful and as neutral as you like, as a reporter, but how is it decided what is important to report? And what is something we all know but that we shouldn't talk about? There are lots of reasons that things aren't reported. Our media has decided that you aren't really that interested in world news. You'd rather hear about US politics and read lifestyle stories. If there's a plane crash, the first thing you should know is, were any Americans on it? That's probably driven by commercial interests. If the focus group shows that people change the channel when you start talking about Zimbabwe, well, they call it the news business.
posted by thelonius at 1:39 AM on December 1, 2017 [4 favorites]
There has to be a market for an alt weekly here in LA.
posted by persona au gratin at 2:05 AM on December 1, 2017
posted by persona au gratin at 2:05 AM on December 1, 2017
There has to be a market for an alt weekly here in LA.
Same alt weekly as everyone now gets - the internet.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:45 AM on December 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Same alt weekly as everyone now gets - the internet.
posted by rough ashlar at 4:45 AM on December 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
What you are merely seeing now are the corpses being dragged off the battlefield.
I was laid off from my sub-$30K journalism job a few years ago. It had nothing to do with Jayson Blair or Fox News. The newspaper industry was blindsided by the internet, like many other industries. These sweeping generalizations need to stop. The vast majority of journalists have nothing to do with cable TV news or Charlie Rose. I'd like to know what other people do for a living or vocation or trade so I can apply the worst examples to the entire lot.
posted by girlmightlive at 5:31 AM on December 1, 2017 [12 favorites]
I was laid off from my sub-$30K journalism job a few years ago. It had nothing to do with Jayson Blair or Fox News. The newspaper industry was blindsided by the internet, like many other industries. These sweeping generalizations need to stop. The vast majority of journalists have nothing to do with cable TV news or Charlie Rose. I'd like to know what other people do for a living or vocation or trade so I can apply the worst examples to the entire lot.
posted by girlmightlive at 5:31 AM on December 1, 2017 [12 favorites]
There has to be a market for an alt weekly here in LA.You know that adage about how if you're not paying for it, you're not the consumer, you're the product? That's always been true for alternative weeklies, even the ones that cost money. The market for alt weeklies is the advertisers, not the readers. They pay their bills by delivering readers to advertisers, who pay for ads. And while there's probably a readership, it's not clear to me that there is an advertising market. So if they're going to exist, they're going to need to come up with a new business strategy.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:18 AM on December 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
As I keep saying, journalism has already lost ... What you are merely seeing now are the corpses being dragged off the battlefield.
I've seen you write that screed around here a dozen times, at least. I still don't know what the point of it is except to apologize for bad journalism or to shill your books. "Oh a wanna-be oligarch just destroyed the LA Weekly, what did you expect, journalism is dead—as I keep saying."
If you call yourself a journalist, then do more reporting and less corpse-fucking.
Meanwhile, it's worth reading Otto Von Biz Markie and Torii on the circumstances surrounding this sale.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:28 AM on December 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
I've seen you write that screed around here a dozen times, at least. I still don't know what the point of it is except to apologize for bad journalism or to shill your books. "Oh a wanna-be oligarch just destroyed the LA Weekly, what did you expect, journalism is dead—as I keep saying."
If you call yourself a journalist, then do more reporting and less corpse-fucking.
Meanwhile, it's worth reading Otto Von Biz Markie and Torii on the circumstances surrounding this sale.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:28 AM on December 1, 2017 [5 favorites]
I remember when New Times took over the LA Reader they immediately started trash talking the LA weekly and npr's kcrw.
posted by brujita at 8:48 AM on December 1, 2017
posted by brujita at 8:48 AM on December 1, 2017
So the new owners, whoever they are, installed OC Weekly's opinion editor, Brian Calle, to run the paper. Calle previously wrote a column with Authur Laffer praising Putin for annexing Crimea and comparing Putin's approval ratings to Obama's. Which...simply being awful is an easier explanation than any conspiracies, but that's weird, right?
It could just be a conspiracy of awfulness, of course.
April Wolfe @AWolfeful
The LA Times profiled the Claremont Institute back in 2001, Claremont Institute's Mission: Conservative, and they sound like the SoCal Heritage Foundation, with all the rightist craziness that implies.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:45 PM on December 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
It could just be a conspiracy of awfulness, of course.
April Wolfe @AWolfeful
Well, isn’t this interesting? Brian Calle, who’s running LA Weekly now, worked for years and was an officer at the Claremont Institute. Their mission statement lays out exactly how they want their people to infiltrate civic life & “defeat progressivism.” Maybe thru a newspaper??Here's one of her examples from its mission statement: "The Claremont Institute has identified the principles that will be necessary to defeat progressivism. We teach the principles of the American Founding, and their application today, to the brightest young conservative men and women who will, with our help, go on to positions of power and influence in government, the courts, academia, and the media."
The LA Times profiled the Claremont Institute back in 2001, Claremont Institute's Mission: Conservative, and they sound like the SoCal Heritage Foundation, with all the rightist craziness that implies.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:45 PM on December 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
James Dawson, the LA Weekly‘s new movie reviewer and author of their current review of The Last Jedi is a man who’s previous writing experience is largely blogging and writing rape fantasy porn.
posted by octobersurprise at 9:49 AM on December 14, 2017
This is not a joke. The @LAWeekly Jedi reviewer wrote "erotic fiction" entitled "Fuck or You're Fired" and "Boobs Boobs Boobs.
— @bethaniapalma
posted by octobersurprise at 9:49 AM on December 14, 2017
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