Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the western United States. With a circulation of 907,997 readers per day as of May 2005, it is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States (after The New York Times). It was formerly the owner of the KTTV television station.

Business operations

By the mid-1940s, the Los Angeles Times was the leading newspaper in terms of sales in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. After World War II, it launched The Mirror an afternoon tabloid to compete with Hearst's Herald-Express. The Mirror absorbed The Los Angeles Daily News in 1954 and ceased publication in 1962, when The Herald-Express was merged with the morning Los Angeles Examiner.

Related Topics:
1940s - Los Angeles metropolitan area - Herald-Express - The Los Angeles Daily News - The Herald-Express - Los Angeles Examiner

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In 1989, its last rival for the Los Angeles daily newspaper market, The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, went out of business, making Los Angeles nominally a one-newspaper city. However, in the suburban neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley, The Times still competed with The Valley News and Greensheet, which later renamed itself The Daily News of Los Angeles to compete with the Times. The L.A. Times has an Orange County edition (with its own printing presses and editorial staff) that competes with the Santa Ana based The Orange County Register. La Opinión, a Spanish language daily newspaper previously owned by The Times for several years in the 1990s, also sells many papers.

Related Topics:
The Los Angeles Herald Examiner - San Fernando Valley - The Daily News of Los Angeles - Santa Ana - The Orange County Register - La Opinión - Spanish language - 1990s

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Even with less direct competition, its paid circulation figures have decreased since the mid 1990s, and lately the paper has not been able to pass the 1 million mark that it easily achieved in prior decades. Part of the reason for the circulation drop may be from the actions of a succession of short-lived editors, including Shelby Coffee III and Michael Parks, appointed by publisher Mark Willes, who took the paper in controversial directions after Otis Chandler, The Times ' last Chandler dynasty member, relinquished day-to-day control in 1985. (McDougal, Privileged Son)

Related Topics:
1990s - Mark Willes - 1985

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A scandal in 1999 triggered when the newspaper devoted an issue of its weekly magazine to covering the newly built Staples Center. This was considered ethically questionable because the Staples Center, the subject of the coverage, helped solicit advertising for the magazine for that issue and the profits were supposed to be split with the sports arena. The revelation of this arrangement resulted in the ouster of Parks and contributed to the departure of Willes after the sales of parent company Times-Mirror in 2000.

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Outside of the city of Los Angeles proper, The Times also competes against several smaller daily papers in nearby Southern California cities. Examples include The Long-Beach Press-Telegram, The Daily Breeze (South Bay), The Ventura County Star, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, and The Pasadena Star-News.

Related Topics:
The Long-Beach Press-Telegram - The Daily Breeze - South Bay - The Ventura County Star - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune - The Pasadena Star-News

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In the 1990's, the Los Angeles Times attempted to publish various editions catering to far-flung areas. Editions included a Ventura County edition, an Inland Empire edition, a San Diego County edition, and a National Edition distributed to Washington, D.C. and the San Francisco Bay Area. The last of these editions, the National Edition, was shuttered in December 2004.

Related Topics:
Ventura County - Inland Empire - San Diego County - Washington, D.C. - San Francisco Bay Area - December 2004

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Some of these editions were folded in to Our Times, a group of community newspapers included in home delivery and newsstand editions of the regular Los Angeles Metro newspaper. Our Times was also founded in Santa Monica due to the closure of the long time Outlook newspaper. Today, the remnants of Our Times are the Times Community Newspapers that are inserted on a regular basis in some areas of the Los Angeles Times. Times Community Newspapers are primarily independent local newspapers that were purchased by the Los Angeles Times during its expansion phase, but have enough of a readership and advertiser base to not fold completely. These include the News Press in Glendale, the Leader in Burbank (and surrounding areas), the Sun in La Crescenta and surrounding regions, the Daily Pilot in Newport Beach and surrounding cities, and the Independent in Huntington Beach.

Related Topics:
Santa Monica - Glendale - Burbank - La Crescenta - Newport Beach - Huntington Beach

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In 2000 the Times-Mirror Company was purchased by the Tribune Company of Chicago, Illinois, ending one of the final examples of a family-controlled metropolitan daily newspaper in the U.S. (The New York Times, The Seattle Times, and others remain.)

Related Topics:
Tribune Company - Chicago, Illinois - The New York Times - The Seattle Times

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