Media people

Beutner gets an invitation to Columbia

Austin Beutner, the fired publisher of the Los Angeles Times, has not spoken publicly at any length since his Facebook post on the day he was asked to leave. Well now he's going to, and not in Los Angeles. A week from today, he will be at Columbia University to speak on "the future of journalism." Should be a pretty hot ticket in New York media circles — a moment certain to be well covered. I wonder if any Los Angeles-based media will bother covering.

The invitation, which Beutner posted to his Facebook page, is from Columbia Journalism School dean Steven Coll. There's an interesting aside there. Back in July, Coll was spotted in the Los Angeles Times newsroom, having meetings and being introduced around by editor Davan Maharaj. It sparked a flurry of hopeful rumors that Coll, a former Washington Post managing editor and New Yorker staff writer — and also an alumnus of Occidental College and California Magazine — might be part of the LAT's future. But any chatter frittered away when Austin Beutner was fired Sept. 8.

Here's the invite.

columbia-beutner-invite.jpg


More by Kevin Roderick:
'In on merit' at USC
Read the memo: LA Times hires again
Read the memo: LA Times losing big on search traffic
Google taking over LA's deadest shopping mall
Gustavo Arellano, many others join LA Times staff
Recent Media people stories on LA Observed:
Walking through 4,000 photographs with Annie Leibovitz
Read the memo: LA Times hires again
Read the memo: LA Times losing big on search traffic
Joe Frank, somewhere out there
Gustavo Arellano, many others join LA Times staff
Michael Bloomberg
Put Jamal Khashoggi Square outside the Saudi consulate on Sawtelle
Here's who the LA Times has newly hired*