LA Observed: Calendar Live analyzed

Calendar Live analyzed

Kevin Roderick • Bio • Email

The Online Journalism Review's Mark Glaser tries to make sense of the L.A. Times putting content from Calendar behind the pay-for-access wall. It was done mainly to create new incentives to subscribe to the paper, but are the Times listings and coverage truly premium content? Not to David Poland of The Hot Button:

"It is a huge gift to The New York Times, which immediately becomes the unchallenged No. 1 newspaper in movie coverage on a national basis...my little voice about movies is suddenly louder than this massive paper...The L.A. Times is replaceable."

Times media critic David Shaw laments the diminished reach of his column in Sunday Calendar, but he's philosophic about it.

"On the other hand, when I've written books, I haven't suggested that the publisher give them away to maximize my audience. I do think that, sooner or later, all news organizations will have to charge for online content or find another way to finance it."

The wall apparently blocks anything that runs in the print Calendar sections: feature stories, culture stories, even letters to the editor and the edited-down Liz Smith column, available in longer form at the New York Post.

12:05 AM Friday, August 15 2003 • Link
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Personally I think it's crap, just the latest in a string of ridiciulous decisions by the LA Times. Uncreative, stupid, and ineffectual... but sadly typical.

Posted by: ted at August 15, 2003 10:13 AM

Why they even run Liz Smith, if they're going to shred her column to bits, is a mystery to me. That they run the most tired of the NYC gossip columnists is another peculiar decision. Perhaps there's some sort of package deal with her syndicator. Word has it, she doesn't even write the column anymore. Why don't they get some fresh, young thing to go out and kick up a fuss? Well, we all know the answer to that. Despite Elizabeth "Gawker" Spiers' disparagement of Los Angeles -- and actually, because of it -- she'd be the perfect choice. Her punishment and our reward! Yeah, I know -- when they start offering ski vacations in hell.

Posted by: Amy Alkon at August 15, 2003 05:23 PM

I'm sad that I can't read Robert Hilburn any longer. I don't live anywhere NEAR where you can subscribe to the LAT.

Posted by: Gary Karr at August 18, 2003 08:39 AM

The weird thing is that all of Calendar is not blocked... it's kind of a selective mish-mash... and Amy Alkon rocks, even if she goes a little overboard in bashing the arch-feminists sometimes.

Posted by: David Poland at August 18, 2003 03:33 PM

I think they are tinkering with what goes behind the pay wall. Recall stories and columns even in Calendar I suspect will all be made available.

Posted by: Kevin Roderick at August 19, 2003 02:31 AM

Comment posting has been turned off

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