Sam Zell, who continues to ruin all that remains good and honest with the beleaguered newspaper industry – a list that includes just the comics page, and those Best Buy circulars, at this point – is taking out one more strand of fishing wire and tying it around the neck of the Los Angeles Times, one of the Tribune Co.'s flagship newspapers that Zell has taken a liking for abusing. Rather than letting the editorial team there, led by editor Russ Stanton, operate the paper's Sunday magazine as it always has, Zell sneakily hired an entire new staff for the weekly LAT Magazine without telling anyone. And that staff, it turns out, is part of the business side of the newspaper, not the editorial unit.

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Another joke about office porn may be stale and in bad taste, but we don’t care: L.A. Times reporters may have access to all the NSFW content they want, but the rest of their job leaves something to be desired.

Since David Hiller took over as publisher of the Los Angeles paper 16 months ago, things have been rough out there.

There was the very public departure of Jim O’Shea.

The announcement that the paper will be cutting 50 jobs.

Ad revenue fell 8.5%, lower than the industry average, and the paper has lost major money in classified ads.

No one has any confidence in the new editor, Russ Stanton.

Sam Zell, the newish owner of the Times, pretends to care about great journalism, but is ultimately concerned with the bottom line.

Yesterday, John Montorio, one of two managing editors, announced that he was leaving at the end of the month. Most Times employees see Hiller as “star-struck outsider, a meddler in the newsroom who does not understand journalism or Los Angeles.”

So while you were enjoying your three day weekend, Jim O’Shea was getting all outraged about getting fired from the L.A. Times over financial disputes, the demise of print journalism, etc.

In the past three years, four senior editors have left the L.A. Times complaining about budget cuts. Effectively, the L.A. Times is that guy who can’t commit that every girl thinks she can change. Rumors have it that the next editor who believes newspapers can change is former business editor Russ Stanton, who currently is the head of editorial content at latimes.com.

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