Monday, January 21, 2008
What is the Truth About James O'Shea?
Often I hear you cannot believe what you read on blogs, which makes me say the same about newspapers this morning.
In the frenzy of articles yesterday, regarding the departure of James O’Shea, it was reported that the Publisher of the Los Angeles Times, David Hiller, fired Mr. O’Shea. Yet David Hiller claims he did not terminate James O’Shea, so what really happened?
David Hiller and James O’Shea replaced former publisher Jeff Johnson and former editor Dean Baquet because of their refusal to terminate reporters and editors, when told to do so by Dennis FitzSimons. The two men worked together as publisher and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, before coming to the Los Angeles Times some fourteen months ago, so they are colleagues and possible friends.
According to Ken Reich, James O’Shea spent one day per week in Los Angeles, before returning home to Chicago, usually on the day he arrived. How can you run a newspaper from the other side of the country? At least David Hiller rents a nice place in Santa Monica, and is present at the newspaper most days of the week.
This blogger feels the spin doctor’s are at work, attempting to make the editors departure seem noble, when in fact he could care less about the editorial department at the Times.
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1 comment:
IMHO,
Under O'Shea's leadership we continued to be too conservative on accepting change (like front page advertising) and continued to be too arrogant in our reporting.
Whether O'Shea was fired or quit makes for good gossip, but it really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is the leadership and vision the new guy/ gal brings.
It's not business as usual anymore! Rethinking everything we do, including manufacturing (aka operations,) is our only choice.
One example of a new challenge-
On YouTube and LiveLeak you can watch videos taken by real soldiers in the heat of real battles, using their cell phone cameras. Also, insurgents upload video of IEDs blowing up Americans. Definitely heavy on drama and light on insight, but how do we, as an information company, take the advantage?
Grandspud
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