Press Row

- The prolonged march of death for the newspaper industry continued today as the LA Times laid off 150 (!!!) of their staffers, all part of a greater plan of eventually cutting the cord on 250 employees (!!?!??!), or 17% of their staff.

The mass genocide coincided with the resignation of Ann Marie Lipinski, 52, as editor of the Chicago Tribune and the “resignation” of LA Times Publisher David Hiller—although Hiller believes he was ousted by Tribune Chairman and Chief Executive Sam Zell, and I’ve heard that was basically flat-out fired.

While not entirely sports related, these layoffs are significant nonetheless. Among the notable layoffs confirmed so far: Chuck Philips was the investigative reporter and Pulitzer winner whose March story linking rapper Sean Combs to an attack on Tupac Shakur was fully retracted by the Los Angeles Times after some of the key backup material was traced back to a faker.

More confirmed departures to come, but so far, the sports-related axings include horse racing handicapper Bob Mieszerski and Wizard of Odds‘ Jay Christiensen, who detailed his fate at WOO.  In addition to his top-notch college football blog, Christiensen was also a news editor for the Tribune.

While the print media world experiences total freefall, the LA Times just seems to defy gravity—by falling even faster. Among the Tribune’s 11 newspapers, the LA Times has experienced the steepest drop in cash flow out of them all, according to the report. The Tribune also owns the Chicago Tribune, KTLA-TV Channel 5, and the Chicago Cubs, among others.

Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller resigns (LA Times) (the article reads much better if you have this playing in the background)

***

- From the excellence that is Fire Joe Morgan, because I can’t say it any better if I try: (link)

The Kansas City Star’s Jeffrey Flanagan has started a blog wherein he defines all the different types of sports fans. One of them is a “nerdy” character who loves stats. Guess what he named it.

Just guess.

You’ll never guess — just try, even though you’ll never guess. It’s hilarious.

I’m not going to tell you what it is, but you should try to guess, because you’ll never get it.

It’s hugely inventive, and super duper hilarious. Guess.

Remember that Mr. Flanagan writes for the KC Star — one of the best sports newspapers in the country. The same paper that employs Joe Posnanski and Jason Whitlock (who’s a bit goofy on TV, but the man can write). A smart, forward-thinking newspaper with interesting columnists and controversial opinions. Remember that, and then guess what Flanagan named this statistically-minded “nerd” character.

You’ll never get it. It’s fucking funny, though. Super funny.

Okay. Just guess.

What was your guess? Was it

Mom’s Basement

?

If it was, you were right!!!!

FJM artfully (as only FJM can) dissects this unfortunate offering that reeks of a sad tale: the older brother, once indomitable, simply can’t stand how little brother blogger has taken center stage. A strongly encouraged read. (“You write for a great paper, man. Act like it.”)

Turdclump (FJM)

***

From FanHouse’s MDS, the Jose Oquendo of moden sports media: BallHype—the sports version of Technorati—has been purchased by Future US.

Future US, a “special-interest media company” based in San Francisco, said they didn’t plan to tinker much with BallHype. “We’re going to run BallHype as it has been running and listening to the community to see what additional features and functionality they want,” said Tyson Daugherty, Future’s head of Internet development “We don’t want to mess with what’s already been proven successful.”

From MDS:

Of course, plenty of organically grown web sites cease to grow organically when they go from the founders’ labor of love to the latest acquisition of a bigger company. Both parties in this deal say that won’t happen.

“The focus of BallHype remains unchanged,” [one of BallHype’s founders] Jason Gurney said. “We’re going to continue doing our best to present the top sports stories for sports fans, while building tools and traffic for sports bloggers. The good thing is that we’ll have a larger staff to build new features and support the site.”

Future US Buys BallHype (Fanhouse)

***

All this fuss about sports message boards and comments lately…first, the blog started by commenters out of ire of another sports blog, and now Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman calls message boards “weapons” with “no more redeeming quality than a porn site.”

TBL, righting the ship:

But as you may be aware of, it happens in newspapers, too. (That column prompted this epic rant.) Here’s a memory jog, Berry: A Texas A&M message board broke the Rhett Bomar-car dealership story.

I have to side with 95% of the comments on TBL’s original post: we should take anything this guy says seriously?

Bullfeathers! Message Boards are Pure Evil! (TBL)

***

Got any media news? Send it over.