The Incredible Shrinking Local Media

Under the stellar leadership of Sam Zell, the LA Times is cutting another 300 jobs and eliminating the California section:

Editor Russ Stanton said in a second memo that the cuts will include a 70-position reduction across the editorial department, or 11 percent, in the coming weeks.

Hartenstein said the paper will reduce the number of sections on March 2, folding the California section into the front section, which includes local, national and international news, while keeping Business, Sports and Calendar as daily fixtures.

The feature section lineup, including Health, Food, Home, Image, Travel and Arts & Books, will remain unchanged, he said.

Good thing there's nothing special happening in the state that would require coverage.

Anyone who thinks that the Times will continue to cover California in the same way by folding the section into the front page is delusional. The staff cuts will certainly come from the local beat. Keep in mind that this is the biggest daily in the state.

We have 38 million residents and maybe 10 full-time reporters making sense of Sacramento.

Let's not wonder why nobody will have good information on why they're getting IOUs in the mail in a few weeks instead of their tax refunds and public assistance checks.