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Thankful for Otis There would be no Los Angeles without the Los Angeles Times. In the late 19th century, when Los Angeles was just a desert outpost on the Pacific, the Los Angeles Times' powerful and controversial publisher and owner, Colonel Harrison Gray Otis, led the city's struggles over development, water rights, and even public morality. Otis' descendants still control the Los Angeles Times through a parent company, Times Mirror, and while the family's civic prominence has declined, its publishing empire has blossomed. Difficulties cause some trouble Led by the Times, one of the country's leading newspapers and the fourth-largest in terms of circulation, Times Mirror controls several leading regional newspapers, including the Long Island Newsday, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, and the Allentown, PA, Morning Call. Times Mirror also publishes special interest magazines such as Field & Stream and Popular Science and owns several mid-sized book publishers. Flagging newspaper sales in recent years have prompted the company to take several aggressive cost-cutting measures, including closing the New York edition of Newsday and The Baltimore Evening Sun. In total, Times Mirror cut 3,000 jobs, the largest downsizing effort the industry has ever seen. In the meantime, Times Mirror has attempted to expand its readership by investing in several on-line publishing services. Trying to spread the word even further The Los Angeles Times itself has had its problems of late, with circulation down 20 percent from 1991-1996. In September 1997, Richard T. Schlosberg III, the publisher of the Times, announced his retirement. He was replaced by Mark Willes, who was the CEO of Times Mirror. Willes created a storm of controversy in the journalism world by saying that the Times' editorial and business (advertising) operations should join forces to boost the paper's circulation. Many in journalism considered the traditional wall between editorial and business operations at a newspaper as sacrosanct. However, the company rebounded under his stewardship, posting increased profits and a climbing market price. In 1999, however, Willes resigned as publisher after having trouble reinventing the paper as he wished to do. He appointed Kathryn M. Downing, the newspaper's president, to his place. Downing hopes to increase the papers daily circulation to 2 million papers sold from the current 1.1 million. From magazines to interzines Times Mirror has shed a number of its non-newspaper holdings in the past two years. After the sales of its legal publishing unit Matthew Bender, its political information unit National Journal, its health publishing unit Mosby, and its half-ownership of legal citation unit Shepard's, Times Mirror estimates that its newspapers will account for three quarters of total revenue. In March 1998, Times Mirror announced its purchase of 24 Southern California editions of Recycler Classifieds, a valuable complement to the Los Angeles Times. The publisher also cultivated its online interests that year, when it acquired niche sports competitor InterZine Productions and merged it with its Times Mirror Magazines. The resulting company, Times Mirror Interzines, manages several sports sites. In 1999, the company introduced OutdoorExplorer.com to its interzine collection aimed at an audience of active adults who enjoy the great outdoors. The company also developed GOLFonline.com to offer golf fans an all inclusive web site for the sport. Look west, young conglomerate In what is perhaps the biggest move in the company's history, in June 2000, the Chandler family finally gave up control of the company, selling it the Chicago-based Tribune Co. for $6.5 billion, thus creating the country's 3rd largest newspaper concern. The combined company will have a presence in the three largest markets in the country; Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, as well as television, sports, entertainment and radio concerns.
Times Mirror lists job openings for its flagship newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, at www.latimes.com. For entry-level minority journalists, Times Mirror's METPRO minority recruitment program offers two-year training programs in reporting or copy editing. These positions pay "well" above the industry average, insiders tell us. In 1997, Times Mirror expanded the popular METPRO program to include business positions. Applicants should contact the Los Angeles Times or the Long Island Newsday, the program's host newspapers, for more information. Other Times Mirror newspapers hire independently and should be contacted separately for job information. Times Mirror provides links to all of its media outlets through its corporate web page, located at www.tm.com. Times Mirror employees often jump from publication to publication within the parent company, insiders say. Keep in mind that most reporters at the Los Angeles Times have worked for a smaller paper for at least five years. "As for interviewing," a Los Angeles Times insider says, "I would be as open and relaxed as possible. I would also be well prepared. When I was looking for my new job, I did oversell. More than a resume and cover letter, I made a report of what I could bring to my new department, and why I was the best person for the job. The powers that be love a good report." At some smaller newspapers, reporters and photographers are brought in to write or shoot one or two trial assignments before being hired full-time.
Changing atmosphere Many Times Mirror employees say that they are still "bitter" over the 1995 "shutdown" of 10-year-old New York Newsday. Longtime employees add that the company's attitude has become more "ruthless" and less "compassionate" in recent years. At one of the company's smaller newspapers, the Advocate of Stamford, Conn., a threatened strike by newsroom employees on Election Day was averted by a settlement several days prior to the election. Nevertheless, Times Mirror reporters comment that the company's newspapers are "the major leagues of journalism." Times Mirror gives its journalists the freedom to "travel extensively" in order to pursue a major story and also furnish the company's newsrooms with "state of the art technology." In addition, employees call the pay scale "impressively high" for the journalism industry. Times Mirror, with its METPRO training program for minorities interested in journalism and business, is considered to have "one of the nation's most active and committed programs for recruiting women and people of color." Bottom-line philosophy At Times Mirror's flagship operation, the Los Angeles Times, employees concur that much of the romance of journalism has been overcome by Times Mirror's bottom-line philosophy. Says one editorial employee, "some people feel that the corporate culture interferes with their creative juices and that the Times is kind of like an insurance office." And employees are well aware that the downsizing-ethic of the corporate world is also ever present at the Times. "Job security used to be a major perk, but corporate downsizing a while back led to forced layoffs for the first time, along with heavier workloads," an insider says. Still, employees take pride in the product, which they view as "one of the three best in the nation, the others being The New York Times and the Washington Post." "Times Mirror is a well established company," says one insider. Gritty offices, good pay The main office for the L.A. Times is in Downtown L.A. "which has been known to be a bit dirty in some areas and has a lot of homeless people." A source says that the salary for reporters at the Times starts at around $50,000 and that employees with five to 10 years of experience make about $70,000. Entry-level reporting positions at some of the smaller papers start in $30,000 range -- still extremely healthy for the industry. "The pay is high for the industry but probably a bit low compared to other businesses," says one corporate employee at the company's flagship paper. The dress code at the Times is business casual, except for high corporate mucky-mucks, and meetings with clients, insiders say.
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