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This morning's Los Angeles Times quietly returned to using the "By" on story bylines — and went back to the simple datelines that newspapers have used for generations. As in "WASHINGTON" or "AMMAN, Jordan." You might remember that the datelines were changed a few years ago when parent company Tribune's quirky and woefully unprepared innovation adviser, Lee Abrams, observed that he didn't realize the LAT datelines meant there were actual reporters in the war zones the Times reports from. So the editors dutifully added "Reporting from Amman, Jordan" so that Abrams and anyone else would understand the bylines and datelines actually mean something. Well, Abrams left the building in 2010 over a video about sluts, and today the old datelines are back — except on the front page Column One story, which today still notes that Henry Chu is "Reporting from Hatfield Broad Oak, England."
Today's bylines change did not restore the traditional "Times Staff Writer" label, stripped off as part of the Abrams 2008 redesign, that told readers up front when the story they are reading is from the staff as opposed to a freelancer or some wire service.
Previously on LA Observed:
LAT redesign: nothing to see
