I’m hearing that surviving sports staffers with the Ontario/San Bernardino arm of Dean Singleton’s L.A. News Group are being told not to expect a return to the main office in Berdoo any time soon.
In one of the generically nonsensical and routinely unconscionable forced migrations of staff perpetrated on journalists at LANG’s eastern properties, the entire sports crew last month was evicted from the San Bernardino office and told to start showing up at the Ontario digs of what once was the independent Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
This, even as rumors persist that Singleton is about to sell the Ontario building. Which, actually, Dean doesn’t need, considering that office already has been denuded of working journalists — aside from the sports exiles.
Sports people, then, thought their latest relocation might be short one.
Now they have been told not to get their hopes up of a return to a real newsroom.
If the building sale goes through, and what’s left of the Daily Bulletin is moved into an Ontario storefront … sports staffers have been told they likely will go along as editorial window dressing.
The decision-makers in the eastern half of LANG have tumbled to the fact that local politicos and businessmen notice when a newsroom has been cleaned out. So, the LANG brain trust (yeah, I wrote that for comedic effect) designates a few editorial employees to go sit at desks. For image purposes. So the whole sad little office isn’t just advertising and circulation people.
I mean, they honestly think something like this: “Maybe the mayor of Ontario won’t notice we’re gone if we put Louie Brewster in the window!”
When it comes to it, they probably could prop up some cardboard cutouts of figures with “PRESS” badges in their hatbands, and allow the real sports people to not bother showing up at a strip mall …. but their desks in San Bernardino have been given to OTHER MediaNews refugees. So, the sports folks are on their own, in Ontario.
The whole shell game of moving departments would be funny. If it weren’t so pathetic and infuriating and Just Plain Wrong.
1 response so far ↓
1 Rico Gregg // Apr 26, 2008 at 8:41 AM
LANG’s geographic re-arranging among staff is already bizarre. Now it’s gotten outrageous and is adversely affecting its’ papers.
In today’s (4-26) SB Sun, there is a leading story in sports, in a paper meant for Inland Empire consumption, and probably in the Daily Bulletin also, about, hold your breath, are you ready for this?….about the PASADENA CITY COLLEGE TRACK TEAM!
No problem from me about the team’s efforts, the school or the city. All fine people and places, I’m sure. But why, in logic’s name, would anybody in San Bernardino or the Inland Empire, care one owl’s hoot about the PASADENA CITY COLLEGE TRACK TEAM??
I was nearly in a state of shock when I went to the Sun’s website and read that needless story. Needless for the IE, that is.
I’m just wildly guessing that the tradition of excellence the Sun had with their coverage of prep sports is now completely obliterated.
Good thing Claude Anderson isn’t around to see this.
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