Memo of the week

Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre's professional burdens include being made fun of in print by columnist T. J. Simers and approving the expense accounts of his writers. Regarding the latter, to judge by the missive Dwyre sent his staff this week, he has seen about enough. His (mildly) sarcastic screed about the spending habits of today's reporters is reproduced here as received.

From: Dwyre, Bill
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 6:13 PM
Subject: travel/expesne reports

Staff:

Just some general observations in the wake of about a month worth of signing expense reports and noting trends. I see the trends as follows:

--Nobody takes a news source out to dinner anymore. We just take reporters from other papers. Nice we can help the bottom line of our competitors. Also, do we ever interview news sources or do we just gather in little clumps with other reporters at dinner and get our stories that way? Could this be a new phenomenon called Pack Journalism with Dinner. I think I might be the first to coin the phrase. Has a ring to it, doesn't it?

--Also, in the good old days, I used to see an occasional expense report from a Holiday Inn or Hampton Inn. No longer, by golly. L.A. Times sportswriters stay at no places that don't have the word "Crown Royale" or Regency" or "Ritz" or "Marquis" in the title.

--Same with airfares. When we used to try, I used to see deals. Now, I amazed to see that you can, with effort, fly to San Francisco for $600 or to Phoenix for $425. You all need to know that I understand and appreciate that it takes some degree of effort to spend 40% to 50% more on most flights than is necessary. And I have always been an advocate of effort and hard work.

--And meals. It is a wonder to me how the $30 dinner started costing $49.27 the minute that extensity [the expense report software] allowed anything $50 or under to go unexplained. Of course, I understand there are coincidences in life.

Anyway, just observations. Keep up the good work.

Dwyre

Previously: Times Sports takes major hit