Menza, the circulation director of the LA Weekly, died last night after battling cancer. Steven Mikulan, speaking for the staff in a story on the Weekly website, says the news dealt the paper "a blow where it hurts."

He was a sparkplug of a man -- quiet and reliable, and displaying an encyclopedic knowledge of where every one of both Weeklys' thousands of bundles of papers went, how well they moved in each venue and what kind of return rate on unread issues we could expect -- from the chaotic lobby of a Hollywood record store to a lonely news rack near City Hall.

Menza led a tireless staff in one of publishing's crucial but little-known fields, one requiring physical stamina, intimate demographic intelligence and a head for quick calculation. His efforts guaranteed an extremely low rate of return for L.A. Weekly issues -- 2 to 4 percent, versus an industry average of 8 to 12 percent among alternative newspapers and 35 percent for magazines.

"Mike was our secret weapon," LA Weekly editor-in-chief Laurie Ochoa said. "One of the big reasons we're still alive and kicking, even this economy, is Mike's genius at knowing exactly where we need to be on the streets -- and how to keep readers hungry for the paper...."

Also today: Annette Haddad, longtime L.A. Times editor and writer.