Dean Singleton's Los Angeles News Group (which publishes the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Whittier Daily News, San Bernardino Sun, among others) has followed the lead of the Los Angeles Times by cutting staff and thus reducing the chance of actual news getting in the way of the ads. Gary Scott (of reporter-g blog) carries a list of the dead, including Elise Kleeman. A Caltech grad, Kleeman's beat included science, her alma mater, JPL, and Altadena. Most recently, she filed great stories on the rise and fall of the Pederast Hilton. No word on who will cover Altadena now, or if it will even by covered by our Denver-owned hometown paper.
Foothill Cities blog waxes eloquently:
Perhaps the greatest loss will be this area’s ever-weakening grasp of history. A couple of weeks ago, one of the founders of the Valley, Bill Temple, passed away just short of his 104th birthday. He had run packing companies in Covina and La Verne, and sat on the valley water board for a half-century. Yes, 50 years.
The Singleton media jalopy made barely a mention of what should have been front-page news. And that was before these most recent cuts.
So, what will be left? High school football and basketball stories, wrapped by the occasional shooting spree, all of which will be hard to find in the jumble of ads.
Of course, the ads will soon thin, as nobody will have any motivation to buy the remaining excuse for content.
Picture shows Singleton (in black) explaining the watchdog role of a free press to a threatening government official.
