Operations Left in the Dark at the Los Angeles Times

One of my pet peeves at the Los Angeles Times is the lack of communication with the Operations Departments, which has prompted many colleagues to tell me to forget it and move on. Well, after one year of attempting to be granted an email account at the newspaper, I have thrown in the towel and will call it quits now.

The main reason I subscribe to LAObserved is for information on my employer, seems someone supplies Kevin Roderick with all company emails from the movers and shakers at the company. I also grab email messages regarding the Tribune Company from Mark Lacter, of LA Biz Observed, and Media Bistro, and not one of these Bloggers work for the Tribune Company or the Los Angeles Times.

Last year Kate Coe found my story regarding the lack of an email account at the Los Angeles Times, and she too found it odd that we are left in the dark and work at the newspaper.

I will give David Hiller credit for the addition of the suggestion box, and for allowing certain emails to be posted on the Times internal Intranet, this is a move in the right direction.

Before I go any further, do you recall the story about the The Emperor's New Clothes?

Many years ago, there lived an emperor who was quite an average fairy tale ruler, with one exception: he cared much about his clothes. One day he heard from two swindlers that they could make the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they said, also had the special capability that it was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position.

Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the cloth, the emperor first sent two of his trusted men to see it. Of course, neither would admit that they could not see the cloth and so praised it. All the townspeople had also heard of the cloth and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were.

The emperor then allowed himself to be dressed in the clothes for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was wearing. He was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid.

Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, afraid to admit that they could not see them, until a small child said:

"But he has nothing on!"

This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd was shouting that the emperor had nothing on. The emperor heard it and felt that they were correct, but held his head high and finished the procession.

Just as the townspeople did not dare disagree with their emperor, most will not disagree with David Hiller at the newspaper, which I feel gives him the wrong message.

As I scanned David’s internal blog I ran across a posting that was less than flattering regarding Kevin Roderick. I naturally came to Kevin’s defense, and explained why I felt LAObserved was a valuable communications tool for the employees without email access.

This prompted a visit by Russ Newton to explain why we do not have email accounts, Russ has tried in earnest to explain to me, and I still don’t understand, why we do not have email accounts in the pressroom. But like I said, I’m letting this go and moving on.

Below is pictured where Operation Employees are to receive their messages from Sam Zell, and David Hiller.