Closure of Living Section Precedes Large Overhaul of Times Features

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Closure of Living Section Precedes Large Overhaul of Times Features

By CLAUDIA PESCHIUTTA

Staff Reporter

The decision by Los Angeles Times executives to shut down the Southern California Living section is part of a broader plan to overhaul the newspaper’s feature departments, an effort similar to that undertaken in recent months at The New York Times.

The revamp, which could take place as soon as September, will also include an expansion of the Calendar section and the introduction of three more themed weekly sections, sources said.

Editor John Carroll told staff members about the features plan on May 16, a few days before The New York Times published an article about the L.A. Times, in which some of the changes were mentioned. No formal announcement had been made as of last week, and there was no indication how the changes would affect staffing.

Carroll, formerly editor of the Baltimore Sun, has been slowly transforming the Times. He joined the paper two years ago, shortly after Tribune Co., which owns the Chicago Tribune, announced plans to buy Times Mirror Co.

“It wasn’t a surprise because it had been out in the rumor mill for weeks,” one Times editor said of the changes. “I think there was a recognition in the staff that Southern California Living wasn’t working.”

Times executives declined to be interviewed for this story.

Another topic of speculation last week was the paper’s business section. Sources said that newsroom executives are looking to replace Business Editor Bill Sing. “The paper’s been out actively interviewing,” said one source. “It’s clear they want to make some wholesale changes.”

In the six years Sing has held the post, the business section about doubled its reporting staff and launched three sections, including the now-defunct Tech Times. The section also won its first Pulitzer Prize, in 1999.

Failed expansion

Southern California Living was one of the expansion projects undertaken by then-Publisher Kathryn Downing and former Times Mirror Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Willes. The two made several expensive and largely unsuccessful efforts to make the Times more of a community paper while remaining a major metropolitan daily.

The troubled section has become a collection of columns, feature and fashion stories, society write-ups, syndicated advice columns and comic strips. It also includes the “Kids’ Reading Room,” a section with stories and games for children.

Willes “got his hands on (Living) and dumbed it down,” said one Times editor. Acting Living Editor Robin Abcarian declined to comment.

Last year Carroll hired John Montorio, formerly the associate managing editor in charge of style coverage for The New York Times, as deputy managing editor of features. Montorio had created the Dining In/Dining Out, House & Home and Sunday Styles sections at The New York Times. His mandate from Carroll was to improve all of the L.A. Times’ features sections, including Calendar, Living, Book Review, Travel and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.

In March, Montorio and Features Editor Rick Flaste presented Carroll with a plan for changing the paper’s features coverage, according to a recent Columbia Journalism Review article. Montorio discussed the plan with the features staff in April.

“We’re talking major overhaul, not fine-tuning,” Carroll told the publication. “One thing we will do is carry a lot more stories about three areas that define L.A. That’s popular entertainment, lifestyle and outdoors.”

With Living set to shut down, some of the content will be moved into an expanded Calendar section. No major changes were expected for the Thursday and Sunday Calendar sections, sources said.

The paper also will expand its features coverage to include a different, themed section for each weekday. Sections on fashion, homes and the outdoors/recreation are being planned for the Tuesday, Thursday and Friday papers, sources said. The new sections will be rolled out over a few months, starting in January 2003.

Health and Food, appearing Mondays and Wednesdays respectively, will remain and be expanded, one editor said.

Change in writing style

The style of the paper’s features coverage also is likely to change. Carroll told reporters at the May 16 meeting that stories “should be witty, intelligent, have a strong voice, be timely, be taut,” said one of the attendees. An editor who was at the meeting said Carroll cited the Washington Post Style section as a model.

“Carroll did kind of derisively say he doesn’t want stories about how somebody feels when their dog dies,” the editor added.

Word of the changes comes just two months after The New York Times introduced Escapes, a weekend activities section that appears on Fridays. The paper also began offering its Dining In/Dining Out and House & Home sections to readers nationwide.

The Wall Street Journal’s recent redesign included the addition of Personal Journal, a section with mostly lifestyle-related stories.

Improving features coverage could help the newspaper stave off circulation declines because it can attract younger readers, said John Morton, president of Morton Research Inc., a newspaper consulting firm. “Younger people have not been taking up the paper,” Morton said. “That’s the cycle newspapers are trying to break.”

The introduction of themed features sections also could help the Times increase advertising revenues. The paper’s full-run and part-run advertising volumes were both down 14 percent in 2001, as compared to 2000. While part-run advertising has seen some gains this year, full-run volume continues to lag.

Themed sections, such as food and health, are attractive to advertisers because they know “they’re going to get readers who have a high interest in those things,” Morton said. While creating new sections won’t be cheap, it won’t be a major capital investment for the paper, he said.

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