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LA Weekly Deputy Editor Joe Donnelly had a pleasant enough interview with Mike Lacey, the New Times co-founder who will soon be in charge of the Weekly (and its OC relation), and stakes out the position that things are going to be OK: "That doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be painful for some, but it might not be the apocalypse for all." New Times has no issue with the union contracts, he reports, and he finds Lacey passionate about journalism and stories about the little guy getting screwed. Donnelly had been arts editor at New Times Los Angeles before jumping to the Weekly.
On the Weekly website only: Bill Bradley knows Susan Kennedy, Gov. Schwarzenegger's new chief of staff, from his younger days in Tom Hayden's old Campaign for Economic Democracy. He looks at why conservative Republicans might not like the lesbian former head of the California Abortion Rights Action League with strong Democratic ties—and why that might be the main idea.
Also on the website: The Weekly is quietly gearing up some new blogs. Turf Toe, a new sports blog written by journalist Jon Alain Guzik, doesn't seem to have a spot on the paper's main site yet, but there have been a few posts. The introductory item says: "A sports blog from the Weekly? Yes, a sports blog from the Weekly. But don’t sports suck? Well, no, sports don’t suck. That was when we were kids, when sport sucked. Now they don't. In fact, they're awesome."