For Publisher in Los Angeles, Cuts and Worse

FOR PUBLISHER IN LOS ANGELES, CUTS AND WORSE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Richard Perez-Pena]
David D. Hiller, the publisher of Tribune's The Los Angeles Times since 2006, took the place of a popular publisher and promptly fired a popular top editor, both of them forced out for refusing to carry out the latest round of staff cuts ordered by Tribune. Last week, after a very bumpy 16 months, he hired a new editor, Russ Stanton. He also has a new boss, Samuel Zell, a real estate billionaire who took the Tribune Company private in December, saying that he was giving more autonomy to Mr. Hiller and other chiefs of Tribune properties. But with the company scraping to meet heavy debt payments, Mr. Hiller faces the daunting task of showing his new bosses that he can turn around a paper hit by an industrywide contraction, a California real estate slump and internal dissension. Within The Times, however, many employees dismiss Mr. Hiller, 53, as a star-struck outsider, a meddler in the newsroom who does not understand journalism or Los Angeles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/business/media/19hiller.html?ref=today...
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