LOS ANGELES -- Is Marilyn Monroe the answer to the hard times at the Los Angeles Times?
After five years of sagging circulation and advertising, new managers at the Times are pushing for more coverage of Hollywood and celebrities. They want shorter stories and more regional reporting in the intensely competitive bedroom communities around Los Angeles.
And there is a campaign for more combination coverage linking the paper and its Web site. The newspaper's front-page story revealing unpublished portions of transcripts of recordings Marilyn Monroe made for her psychiatrist received many hits when it was posted on the Times' Web site. In addition, readers found on the Web site more photos and information about the blonde bombshell. The paper also plans to launch on Nov. 1 a Web site known as "the envelope," which will cover entertainment-industry awards like the Grammys and the Oscars.
In the five years since the Chicago-based Tribune Co. bought the Times, the paper has won 15 Pulitzer Prizes, but it has suffered large circulation and advertising losses. Daily circulation is down 18% and full-run advertising, or ads that appears in all editions, is down 26% through 2004. At the time of the sale in 2000, the Times was the largest metropolitan daily in the U.S., with a circulation of 1.1 million. It now stands at 908,000 -- a little less than it was in 1968, even as population in Southern California mushroomed.
Tribune executives acknowledge the disappointing performance. "The growth hasn't been what we had hoped it would be," says Scott Smith, president of Tribune's publishing arm.
The Times's problems come amid a general slump in the newspaper industry, with papers in big metropolitan areas being hit especially hard. Overall circulation among American dailies dropped 1.9% in the most recent six-month reporting period ending March 31, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. At the Times, daily circulation was off 6.5%.
"The Times suffers from all of the same problems other metropolitan papers suffer from," says veteran industry analyst John Morton. Its readers are aging and dying off faster than they can be replaced, he says.
In some ways, the Times faces even tougher challenges than other newspapers. Many people in Los Angeles and its surrounding area are conversant in technology, comfortable with getting information online and are voracious consumers of Hollywood and video productions. At the same time, the Times must grapple with large, non-English speaking populations; distribute papers to far-flung communities across deserts and mountains and fend off tough competition from suburban papers.
To help remedy the circulation drop, Tribune Co. has replaced the Times's top managers. It also has introduced a package for readers to subscribe to the paper Friday through Sunday only, the most popular days of the week for readers and advertisers. The hope is that subscribers will like the paper enough on weekends that the Times can win them back during the week.
With this and other efforts, says Jack Klunder, senior vice president of circulation, daily circulation has begun to stabilize, and in the last few weeks has turned up. Next year, he adds, "We're going to show growth."
One major change will be the paper's push into more coverage of celebrities and the city's hometown industry, Hollywood. With this move, Dean Baquet, formerly the paper's managing editor who became editor in August, is walking a tightrope because he doesn't want the reputation of the Times as a journalistic heavyweight to suffer. Mr. Baquet says he remains committed to tough reporting, citing his dedication to coverage of Iraq. At the same time, he's considering re-establishing a gossip column. "I would be lying to say there isn't going to be tension," says Mr. Baquet.
Mr. Baquet also wants to see shorter stories. The paper often runs stories several thousand words in length, including its trademark "Column One" feature on the front page. "We publish stories sometimes that are too long," says Mr. Baquet. "I want to encourage shorter stories."
Another key player in the Times's attempt to turn around is John T. O'Loughlin, senior vice president of marketing, planning and development. Prior to joining the Times, he was general manager of the Chicago Tribune's RedEye edition, a thin, celebrity-filled tabloid launched three years ago and aimed at younger readers. A hallmark of the RedEye is short stories.
The staff is leaner as well. Five years ago, says Mr. Baquet, the Times had 1,100 to 1,200 staffers in the news department. Today, it's less than 1,000 and "I suspect we're going to have some cuts," he says.
Wall Street is eager to see whether the new moves at the Times, the No. 4 paper in the U.S., will work. The newspaper is the largest property of Tribune Co., providing nearly 20% of its revenues. Last week, after the company lost a $1 billion case in U.S. tax court, many analysts downgraded Tribune's stock, and some have suggested the need for more dramatic moves, such as selling assets.
Despite the woes, Tribune Co. says it has no intention of selling the Times, and has made investments designed to boost circulation and allow it to produce more lucrative color ads. Mr. Smith, president of the Tribune's publishing arm, says he is confident that the new management team at the Times can "get us to the next level of performance."
Over the summer, David Geffen, cofounder of DreamWorks SKG, met with Tribune Chairman and CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons, telling him he was interested in buying the Los Angeles paper, according to a person familiar with the situation. But Mr. FitzSimons rebuffed him, this person added. Los Angeles is critical to the Tribune corporate strategy of offering advertisers print and TV combinations in the nation's biggest media markets. And Tribune has given no sign of altering that strategy.
Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson says some of his paper's circulation losses came from losing touch with readers. "We may have pulled back too far," he says, in covering issues that matter to Southern Californians. Now, he says the Times wants to increase local coverage. "We won't out-local the local papers," he says. "(But) I think you will see us placing bigger bets on regional coverage."
The Times competes with no fewer than 16 local daily papers. One is the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, some 60 miles to the east. The paper was acquired by Dallas-based Belo Corp. in 1997, and has a daily circulation of about 188,000. The Press-Enterprise is distributed throughout California's Inland Empire, which includes two counties coveted by the Times: Riverside and San Bernardino. The counties have more than 3.6 million people and are booming. "The emphasis is really on local, local, local," says Press-Enterprise Publisher Ron Redfern.
Write to Joseph T. Hallinan at joe.hallinan@wsj.com
