More confusion on LAT firing

Why is this getting to be so complicated? Well, maybe it tells you something about relations between Publisher David Hiller and his now ex-editor, Jim O’Shea. Hiller tells the WSJ that O'Shea wanted his budget increased by $3 million, to $123 million. “The idea that a newsroom budget would be increased was regrettably totally unrealistic," he said. O'Shea said Hiller asked for what would amount to $7 million in reductions: $3 million in newsprint costs and about $4 million from other parts of the budget. (Earlier reports said Hiller had proposed to keep the budget at $120 million.) The showdown took place a couple of weeks ago at Union Station's Traxx restaurant. According to O’Shea, Hiller said, "This paper just has to get smaller and smaller.” O'Shea told the Journal that the problem wasn't in the budget cutting but in the process. To that point, it sure sounds like Hiller was preparing to make a change and that the budget squabbling became the catalyst that made it happen.

While Mr. O'Shea insists that he was fired, Mr. Hiller said it was a mutual decision, but he said that "at some point it is more semantic. The fact is we didn't see eye-to-eye." Mr. Hiller said even before their disagreements he had expected Mr. O'Shea to be a transitional editor at the paper, serving only a year or two. "It was a question of whether we do it now or six months from now," he said, adding that he expects to soon make additional changes at the paper.

Hiller also confirmed that managing editor John Arthur and innovation editor Russ Stanton were on the short list of candidates to replace O'Shea. "We've got to pick up the pace of change," Hiller told the Journal.