Starting in January 2006, the Washington bureau of the L.A. Times will share space with eight other Tribune papers, the Chicago Sun-Times says today. Consolidation is being met with "deep suspicion" among the journalists, who fear it will lead to cutbacks and shared coverage. Right now the LAT has about 55 staffers in Washington, more than the total of all the other Tribune papers, and each of the larger bureaus operates independently of the chain. (Via Romenesko)

Also: Irvin Muchnick of Beyond Chron.org in San Francisco goes online with an email exchange with LAT Magazine editor Drex Heikes. And Neal Boulton, who had a role in launching designing the LAT Outdoors section, has been named Editor in Chief of Men's Fitness. He had been Creative Director. (Via PR Newswire)

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