OCWeekly's Gustavo Arellano exchanged email with William Lobdell, one of the Los Angeles Times staffers who is ankling the shrinking Orange County office. They appear together regularly on the Orange County roundtable with Larry Mantle on KPCC's "Airtalk." Arellano posts:

Ever the gentleman, he responded thusly:

Sadly, I raised my hand to be laid off. It was a very difficult decision; I always believed I would retire at The Times. As a second-generation Timesman, my love for the newspaper was deeply rooted, and I had found my dream job. I couldn't wait to come to work each day, and I was always proud to tell people what I did for a living. The job
was so fun and rewarding that I often couldn't believe I actually got paid to do this.

But I've recently and reluctantly concluded that the risk of staying at the paper had become greater than the risk of leaving (which is saying something). I have a wife and four boys who depend on me, and it was time to pull the ripcord for their sake and mine.

This major curve in my career has left me with a mix of feelings: sadness, anger, depression, fear, adventure and excitement. I'm not sure what the future will look like, but I've got several irons in the fire, along with my book ("Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America") from HarperCollins coming out in February. Anyone who wants to contact me (for high-paying jobs or just to say hi), can e-mail me at williamlobdell@yahoo.com.

Earlier this month Lobdell lost his father, retired Times Mirror legal counsel Robert Lobdell.