The Incredibly Shrinking Los Angeles Times

Lost in all the hand-wringing over the Los Angeles Times’ elimination of the California section — a sure sign as any that the paper is waving the white flag, and giving up any hope of being the powerful, comprehensive newspaper it always aspired to be — was its announcement that the stand-alone Classified section would be cut as well.

Think about it — that’s as telling a sign as any that the newspaper biz is dying. Once a hefty source of income, classified sections across the country have been decimated by the Internet (particularly Craigslist). The L.A. Times is moving the classifieds into the Sports section, which means your seven-section paper (Front, California, Business, Sports, Calendar, Classifieds, and the rotating daily feature) has been reduced to five.

Thought your paper was already thin? Let’s face it, the L.A. Times has now turned itself into a medium-sized market newspaper. Los Angeles, you’re now getting Boise-sized news. When I lived in Honolulu, our paper of choice, the Star-Bulletin, also consisted of just four sections — news, business, sports and features. But places like Honolulu or Boise are just a fraction of L.A.’s size… and don’t we deserve a newspaper befitting of the nation’s second-largest metropolitan area?

The paper’s also thinner these days as fewer and fewer circulars are stuffed inside; that, along with the decline in Classified ads, is the real problem. Every time another major retailer folds, I’m reminded that it represents yet another ad supplement that will no longer be found in the Sunday paper. Just recently, that’s included Linens N Things, Mervyn’s and Circuit City. Go back just a bit further, and retailers like CompUSA and Robinsons-May were loyal advertisers as well. Now, all gone. Oh, and take out all of those real estate ads as well — and fewer auto ads on top of it.

Is it any wonder the paper’s so thin?

Now, I’m depressed and angered that the Los Angeles Times is axing its California section; I think it’s short-sighted and will cause more harm than good. Moving Business inside the front or California sections, while putting all of the Hollywood business news inside Calendar, makes more sense. (Most business news — bailouts, financial collapses — are national news anyway, and could fit in the front section.)

But I’m not going to race and cancel my subscription just yet. If the goal is to convince Tribune to rebuild the L.A. Times, hitting them even harder on the subscription side sure isn’t going to help things. And more importantly, we still all have a vested interest in the health and survival of our own major newspaper. If we don’t subscribe, then we have no voice in the matter. And although they’ve pissed me off by cutting California, I’m not ready to enact that ultimate punishment. Yet.

MEANWHILE, a bit of advice to the Times. After years of soft, cheesy and downright uninspiring marketing campaigns (one spot featured a series of goofy-looking folks ogling the newspaper through a newsbox — see it here), now is not the time to be subtle. The paper needs to start scaring the public — and particularly its remaining subscribers — by pointing out what would happen if the paper weren’t around. How about this for starters: The Los Angeles Times. Without Us, A Known Rapist Would Still Be Working At County-USC Medical Center. Yep, You’ll Miss Us When We’re Gone.

Sunset from the 30th Floor

Been a tough couple of days at the office, which you might have read about. Here’s wishing some of my former colleagues the best.

A Case of Mistaken Charo Identity

Whoa, Charo in trouble? Those “Love Boat” residuals finally running out? The global market for “coochi-coochi” has run dry?

Alas, as I clicked on LA Biz Observed, I discovered that CHARO is a Los Angeles-based charity that provides services to small business owners and residents in the region. Damn.

Yes, that means Charo is doing just fine. At least, as far as we know. Coochi!

SoCal to Lose 164,000 Jobs This Year; Are You Among Them?

The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ “Metro Unemployment Forecast” is forecasting a loss of 164,100 jobs in Southern California between November 2008 and November 2009 — worse than any other metropolitan region except for New York.

The Orange County Register (h/t to L.A. Biz Observed) has the details:

SoCal unemployment is expected to hit 9.8% this November, up from 8.7% in November 2008, says the report. (Note: Because Los Angeles dominates the region in population and jobs, it has a major influence on the regional unemployment number. In November, Los Angeles reported unemployment of 8.9% while Orange County’s was 6.1%) Although the SoCal rate will increase, it will still be in the single digits. At least 70 other metro areas are expected to see unemployment top 10%, including Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, which is projected to hit 11.6%.

Read the report here. (Graphic above from the OC Register.)

Help Homeboy Help Others

I’m sure you’re familiar with Homeboy Industries, the nonprofit started 20 years ago by Father Greg Boyle to assist former gang members in straightening out their lives via counseling, job training, tattoo removal and other services.

The economic downturn has hit nonprofits hard — and Homeboy is in danger of having to cut its services. Such a move could reverberate throughout the city, as Homeboy’s massive operation reps the largest and most successful gang rehabilitation program around.

The organization is currently holding a fundraising campaign to offset the loss of major financial donations that are no longer coming in. Homeboy recently raised $25,000, which was matched by a donor; that donor has now agreed to match another $25,000 should it raise that amount again by Wednesday, Jan. 7.

You can learn more about donating here. Also, Homeboy Bakery — the service that the organization first began two decades ago — is currently taking orders for holiday cookies and tamales here.

How Low Can The Gas Go?

LA Biz Observed’s Mark Lacter notes that forecasters now say $1/gallon gas may be possible, as the prices continue to drop.

Weren’t we above $4 just a few months ago? The rapid decline has been fascinating.

Meanwhile, as I see more and more gas stations offer a discount for motorists paying cash, the spread between the cash price and the credit card price seems to be getting wider.

I recently pulled into a 76 gas station where the cash price was $1.79 — but the credit card price was $1.99. I usually hate paying cash for gas — but I couldn’t resist that price.

Steve & Barry’s: What Went Wrong

I’ve been fascinated by the rapid rise and even faster decline of Steve & Barry’s, the discount clothing chain that recently declared bankruptcy for the second time in three months — and is now shutting down for good.

The chain is liquidating its merchandise, although I didn’t find any real bargains during a recent trip to the Burbank location. That’s because the liquidators — sneaky as they are — have decided to knock 30% off a higher price point than the $8.98 that all Steve & Barry’s merchandise had been selling for.

Yep — $8.98. That may explain why Steve & Barry’s collapsed so quickly. The profit margins are either razor-thin, or not there at all, with those kind of prices. It’s rumored that Steve & Barry’s basically survived off of the shopping malls that provided incentives to the stores in bringing them in.

The chain also expanded too soon and too fast. We wrote about Steve & Barry’s arrival to Burbank last year.. but even then it seemed strange that the store could survive on so little.

Now here’s your answer: It couldn’t. That’s a shame — in these tough economic times, a bargain clothier like Steve & Barry’s should thrive. Instead, the store will soon cease to exist.

Here’s more from Business Week:

Yet Steve & Barry’s is a retail casualty. Design couldn’t save the day for this chain. Aggressive growth, instead, seemed to be the company’s goal—and perhaps its downfall. It’s bankrupt. While growth is what every business strives for, obviously, when is enough enough? Could Steve & Barry’s still be doing well, if it didn’t push for opening nearly 300 stores — almost ten times the number of stores it had five years ago — in such a relatively short time? If the company had focused more on design and quality at super-low prices, which seemed to be a priority, instead of the number of stores, perhaps it could have found itself in a different position today. One that would offer cash-strapped consumers fun, well-designed clothing at prices they could afford during the toughest of times, and would allow them to profit from the mass desire for cool apparel at bare-bones prices. Now those customers will be shopping at their competitors’ stores instead.

Steve & Barry’s stores were also located at the Beverly Connection and in Santa Monica, among other spots.

Perhaps It’s Time For Ben & Jerry’s to Resurrect This Flavor

In 1987, after the stock market plunged, Ben & Jerry’s introduced the limited edition flavor “Economic Crunch.” The flavor now exists only as part of B&J’s “Flavor Graveyard,” outside of its Waterbury, Vt. headquarters.

Perhaps, given what’s going on right now, it’s time to bring back “Economic Crunch” — vanilla with chocolate-covered almonds, walnuts and pecans.

(More on our B&J visit to come.)

While Wall Street Burns, We Vacate

As seen in a Manhattan store window.

Going on vacation the same week that the economy is collapsing is quite a surreal experience. Just as the Dow was skidding and Wall Street was panicking, we were driving through Vermont and New Hampshire, on a trip planned long before the nation’s economic woes grew so severe.

After a week in New York on business (where, among other things, we discovered our favorite pizza joint yet — details to come — we drove up to Southern Vermont, then up to the northern part of the state, and then New Hampshire. In all three regions, we were treated to the best fall weather/fall colors combo in years, the locals kept telling us.

We also hit some good meals, a couple of medicore ones, and adjusted our plans as Blogger Preschooler suffered through an ear infection.

Stowe, Vermont.

"Nice Job, You Suk": The WaMu Graffiti Mystery

A reader writes:

I caught in passing on Fox News Channel (yes, I know) a live report on the morn of the 26th how vandals in Los Angeles trashed a Washington Mutual branch & tagged the glass with obscene slogans about the financial imbraglio(they had to be careful on camera) Then I saw…nothing else. No local, LA Times, blogs…nada Where did this happen? Did anybody else see this report? Does WaMu still have enough clout to sink a story like this?

Such an obvious illustration for consumer anger… I’m surprised too that this trashed WaMu branch hasn’t gotten more play. I’ve tried Googling several different variations of “graffiti,” “Washington Mutual” and “Los Angeles,” and all I get are an AP story that briefly mentions the vandalism (without specifying which L.A. branch), along with this AP photo by Hector Mata.

Anyone have any more info on the Day That a WaMu Customer With Spray Paint Got Even (Whoo-hoo!)?