Los Angeles Times Publisher - FIRED! Jeff Johnson Out!

LAOBSERVED.COM has the story:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/10/johnson_fired_as_times_pu.php

Just when the gradual improvements at the Los Angeles Times have reached a critical mass point and the paper is once again not only worth reading to find out what is happening in this city - but mandatory reading for anyone who cares about Los Angeles - one of the two people most respsonsible for this happening has been fired by the Chicago Tribune's bean counters.

Now the only question is - will the Tribune's death wish for the Los Angeles Times be completed if Dean Baquet now resigns?

UPDATE!

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-100506johnson,0,3972238.story?coll=la-home-headlines

LA Times reports that David Hiller new publisher of Los Angeles Times. Still no word if Dean Baquet will quit.

James Rainey
Times Staff Writer

11:20 AM PDT, October 5, 2006

The Tribune Co. forced out Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson this morning, a little more than a month after he defied the media conglomerate's demands for staff cuts that he suggested could damage the newspaper.

Tribune Publishing President Scott C. Smith was huddling with top managers at the newspaper and was expected to announce after the meeting that David Hiller, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, would immediately replace Johnson as chief executive at the 125-year-old newspaper. Hiller would become the 12th publisher of The Times.

Hiller was expected to ask Times Editor Dean Baquet to stay on the job, despite the editor's sharp protests against further job cuts by the Chicago-based parent corporation. Friends of Baquet said the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist had not yet decided to remain with the paper....