Garza on the Los Angeles Public Media Service

Oscar Garza, who was editor of the late Tu Ciudad magazine and before that a longtime editor in the L.A. Times Calendar section, is the senior assignment editor for the Los Angeles Public Media Service, a forthcoming multimedia news project with a strong radio base. The goal, as he tells KCET blogger (and KPCC reporter) Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, is to diversify the public radio audience.

Public radio has a couple of problems. One is that their audience is older and getting older, their average audience. And they're not very diverse. It's an overwhelmingly Anglo audience.

We're looking for ages 25 - 40. By nature of the fact that we're in Los Angeles, it'll be a largely Latino-oriented service but also recognizing that because of the diversity of the city and because we're talking about generations that are accustomed to living in this multicultural, diverse environment, their lives, they're not just living in this Latino bubble. We all have Asian friends, African American friends.

Garza also talks about his efforts to get the Times "to be more attentive to the Latino community in Los Angeles," and how L.A. "is historically and remains at its essence a Mexican city." Last year his job as senior editor for content at the Daily News was eliminated.

Photo: KCET.org