I’ve been writing about smaller, niche publications closing up shop in the past several weeks as a sign of the times.
Now the Los Angeles Times is making a more dramatic cut.
The newspaper said it will fold its California local news section into the main news section of the paper next week to save money by eliminating one press run. It will cut jobs in its Orange County printing plant and possibly in its Costa Mesa newsroom.
Some were surprised the Los Angeles Times is eliminating the more popular California section as a standalone instead of folding the business section into the front of the paper. But those in the know said the publisher is trying to push ads into the business section by giving it more prominence.
Advertisers might be more willing to pay to advertise into the California section if it were in the A section, but not in the business pages if they had been folded into the A section, said a source close to the paper.
The Los Angeles Times may have taken a cue from the Orange County Register, part of Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. The Register also tried to save money by folding its Marketplace business section into the front of the paper but brought it back in November as a standalone section four days a week.
The Times now will publish four daily sections: A, Business, Calendar and Sports, ac-cording to Eddy Hartenstein, publisher and chief executive at the paper.
The paper plans to lay off 300 people including more than 70 newsroom workers.
The 11% reduction will bring the newsroom staff to around 600, half of what it was eight years ago.
No word yet on how the Costa Mesa operation will be affected by the layoffs.
In addition to the newsroom workers, the Times also is cutting workers at its printing plants in Downtown Los Angeles and Costa Mesa. Some 60 of the 244 workers will be let go, about a 25% reduction.
The layoffs will be the fourth round of cutbacks at the paper in the past year.
The Times’ parent company, Chicago-based Tribune Co., is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Brea Ad Shop Shutters
Brea-based Dentsu Next Inc. shut its doors last month after it couldn’t recover from losing one of its larger accounts.
The ad shop lost the $100 million Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp. business last July to El Segundo’s Siltanen & Partners, which had been working with Suzuki on another project.
Suzuki had been at Dentsu Next since 2000.
The ad shop’s closure comes as part of a planned restructuring of Dentsu Holdings USA Inc., the New York-based holding company for Japan’s Dentsu Inc., which also shuttered Dentsu Next’s New York office.
“This was the planned closure of Dentsu Next,” said Tim Andree, chief executive at Dentsu Holdings.
The remaining accounts handled by the agency,including New Jersey’s Sharp Electronics Corp.,were shifted to other Dentsu agencies including New York’s McGarryBowen LLC and Dentsu America’s Los Angeles office.
Only 15 of the shop’s 50 workers in Brea were laid off. The remaining workers were transferred to the other Dentsu ad shops.
PR Firm Adds Clients
Tustin-based HKA Inc., formerly Hilary Kaye Associates Inc., had a busy January.
The public relations firm added to its client roster Compton-based Primary Freight Services Inc., an international and domestic shipping company, Santa Ana’s Orange County on Track, a nonprofit working with at-risk children, and Santa Fe Springs-based California Line, which sells biodegradable water bottles.
The firm will be handling the traditional and digital media relations for each company.
HKA also is back with Irvine-based Susan’s Healthy Gourmet, handling the packaged healthy food distributor’s media relations after a few months on hiatus.
“We stopped for a few months with them while they moved into their new facility and sorted through a couple things,” said Hilary Kaye, president at HKA.
The public relations firm also will be working with Irvine-based Xan Confections, the newest venture by Susan Johnson and Kerry Johnson of Susan’s Healthy and chocolatier Tracey Downey.
Bits and Pieces:
Irvine-based Kia Motor America Inc., part of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., has launched three TV spots for the new Kia Soul compact sport utility vehicle. The spots produced by Toronto-based Publicis Toronto, part of France’s Publicis Groupe SA, and director Mark Gilbert of Toronto’s Untitled Films Ltd. introduce consumers to the vehicle with quirky commercials as part of the “Peer into a Soul” campaign Ramirez International Financial & Accounting Services, an Irvine-based accounting and consulting firm, has hired Irvine-based Morgan Marketing and Public Relations LLC to handle business-to-business marketing and media relations Costa Mesa-based ASG Renaissance hired an acting director of client services, Nicole Marshall, after former director Rebecca Rose left the public relations agency for Irvine-based Buddy Group Inc.
