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The LAT's media ponderer, James Rainey, catches up with and gives the once-over to three recently reported cases of a newsmaker hiring a journalist to deliver its news directly to the reading public: the Kings' and Rich Hammond, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and former Times city editor Joel Sappell, and the Consumer Attorneys of California and former LAT Sacramento reporter Dan Morain.
Most folks in the traditional media who hear about this latest chapter in journalism's ongoing revolution will have questions and a few reservations. Steeped in healthy skepticism, they will wonder how far these new "inside editions" will go. Can newsmakers become provocative and righteous news breakers?I'm ready to temporarily suspend disbelief. Some of the new endeavors have not yet launched. Others started only recently. Let's see what they come up with before passing judgment.
Yaroslavsky's new web effort also employs former LAT Calendar Editor (and magazine honcho) Lennie LaGuire and Newsweek's former L.A. bureau chief, Andy Murr, as $36,000-a-year half-time contributors.