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"I have been cited lately as something of an expert in ethics and I
don't quite understand," said LA Times Editor John Caroll at a PRSA-LA
sponsored half day media session called "Keeping Up With The Times"
at the Times Square auditorium last month (May 13, 2004.) The event
was free for PRSA members, who only had to bring in a reading book.
More than 1,500 books were collected for the LA Times Ready by 9 program.
"I've been in quite a few scrapes and maybe it's just the fact that
I've been through any number of crises at a newspaper, plus the fact
that my hair has gone gray. Your ethics improve when your hair changes."
"A lot has happened since the paper changed hands and was taken
over by the Tribune Company in 2000," says Caroll.
Caroll also noted that the LA Times has made some internal changes
and tried to do it as "humanly as possible." "If you look at our masthead,
which is the list of the highest ranking people responsible for putting
out the paper that appears every day on the editorial page, my last
count showed 11 of the 14 people were not on the masthead in 2000. Prior
to 2000 we went through a rough period in the '90's and we underwent
brain drain. We lost a lot of very fine people. The New York Times hired
some of our people and we lost a lot of people to the dot coms and other
places."
New York Times ethical problems helped make for successful recruiting
at LA Times says Caroll.
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LA
Times Editor JOhn Carroll talks to 2003 President Greg Waskul
(r) and Cindy Harding, 2004
President, PRSA-LA during a break at the Los Angeles Times Auditorim
for a half day media workshop.
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Several
hundred budding and experienced PR Pros attended a half-day workshop
to learn how to get on the radar of national newspaper. The session
featured seven of the LA Times top reporters and pulitzer prize-winning
journalists, who all offered secrets of success and pet peeves.
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The LA Times then turns the tide. "One of our first goals was to reverse
that. We had very good success. Part of it was the New York Times had
its problems and we were getting a lot of refugees from there, including
the same people who left here (LA Times) earlier. So that was an opportunity
for us."
Caroll admitted that the scandal at the New York Times was a "terrible
thing for that paper and really our whole profession. That's what the
good John was saying. The bad John was saying couldn't it just go on
for another year or two," said Caroll.
LA Times beefs up staff, doubling investigative writers team in
Washington DC
"In Washington DC we have been working on improving the quality of
our beat coverage for the people who know a specific subject and cover
it well. We recruited a very kind investigative reporter from the Washington
Post named Deborah Nelson and she has had wonderful success," said Carroll.
Nelson was hired from the Washington Post in 2001 and asked to double
the staff of investigative reporters in the DC bureau from four to eight.
She's added Kevin Sack from the New York Times, Chuck Neubauer from
the Chicago Sun-Times, and former freelancer Ken Silverstein.
The LA Times overhauls the newspaper for the first time in decades.
The second most read in the LA Times is the "California"
section say panelits.
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"Here in LA we introduced the California section, which replaced the
different sections of the paper, depending upon where you lived. In
the features area, we decided to invest heavily in Calendar, which is
a very successful section already and we dropped the section Southern
California Living, which never quite found its legs. One of our goals
in Calendar and also business coverage is to have the very best coverage
of the entertainment industry than any newspaper. That's an obvious
goal for a paper situated where we are," said Caroll.
In Business news the LA Times brought in Rick Whartzman as the Editor
from the Wall Street Journal. "We have to take note of the fact that
California is a nation unto itself as an economy, and we want to be
the best covering that and in covering the companies in California.
Although we can not ignore the rest of the country and the rest of the
world, which is a tall order." Caroll also noted that the LA Times has
been working on each of the crafts that go into the paper every day.
"I'm speaking of the photography, the page design, which is essential
to having good photography. If we do not use the pictures well, there's
not much point in having them. The copyediting, the headline writing
and all the many crafts that go into the paper every day, if it all
comes together you'll have a finer paper. Those are some of the things
we've been doing over the last four years."
Read the "------- paper" say panelist
Other panelists included an all-star lineup of seven Pulitzer Prize
winners. Among the writers, editors and columnists were: Sam Enriquez,
Ann Reifnberg, Craig Matsuda, Michelle Busco and Sherry Stern. They
collectively offered these PR tips for getting media placement in the
LA Times for budding and seasoned PR pros attending:
 Faxes are antiquated.
Email is the best and only way to pitch
Avoid multiple pitches
to writers, unless everyone knows who you've pitched
Send personal email
pitches-generic "news desk" or "Editor," pitches get deleted "
Know who you are pitching
to and don't pitch the website editors
Build a relationship
with reporters, who often sell your story to the editor
"RTF paper"- read each
section of the paper closely before you pitch
Don't bother to send
story corrections to "Letters to the Editor"-editors make corrections
Don't over pitch a
story or leave long voice mail pitches-writers will call you if interested
Check in advance of
sending any client or company samples or items for stories
We can't accept food
or items of value such as an expensive DVD machine
We don't accept unsolicited
video games or items - we have very strict rules
If you tip me off
on a story, I will remember your name or PR firm
Don't send form letters
to the LA Times Op-Ed section
It is best to contact the Los Angeles Times by email firstname.lastname@latimes.com.
To contact the LA Times newsroom send email to: metrodesk@latimes.com
or call 1-800-LATIMES. The local direct number to the newsroom is 213.237.7847.
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"Eye On PR"
