Long Beach lost its daily newspaper today. The Press-Telegram, a name synonymous with local journalism for 110 years, suffered deep staff cuts and a corporate restructuring that leaves it as little more than a bureau for the Torrance-based Daily Breeze.

MediaNews Group, Inc., the corporate parent of both papers, fired Press-Telegram publisher Dave Kuta, managing editor John Futch and nine newsroom employees, then placed the operation under the control of Daily Breeze publisher Mark Ficarra – who has been on the job for little more than one month. Twelve other P-T employees will join the staff at the Daily Breeze.

“It’s a fatal shot to our efforts to maintain local control of our coverage,” said Joe Segura, veteran P-T reporter and leader of the paper’s unionized newsroom employees.

Press-Telegram Executive Editor Rich Archbold will keep his job,  and reporters figured that was probably why he characterized Friday’s bloodbath as “kind of a bittersweet day.” Archbold thus extends his 30-plus-year tenure at the Press-Telegram, where in a variety of management positions — managing editor, editor, judge in the annual Halloween costume contest — he has presided over the steady decline of the paper.

Meanwhile, Press-Telegram newsroom employees had been working without a contract for more than a year while negotiating to stop the steady dismantling of the once-great paper by its over-leveraged corporate owner. Now, another bunch of them won’t be working at all.

The 11 cuts announced today during a series of late-morning meetings in the Press-Telegram’s office suites on Ocean Blvd. brought the body count for the week to 14. Reporters Don Jergler and Hanna Chu resigned a few days ago and photographer Kevin Chang checked out Thursday. The Press-Telegram now has 10 reporters to “cover” the 19 cities it claims as its territory.

Friday’s developments only made official what was becoming more and more evident in recent months. As The District reported in December, ultimate authority over the P-T’s coverage already had been shifted to Phillip Sanfield, the editor of the Daily Breeze. Sanfield began informing P-T employees that he was in charge — above Archbold on the chain of command — as soon as he arrived.

Sanfield denied he was calling the shots at the P-T  when contacted by The District in December.

“I don’t want to spend much time talking with you about this, except to say that you’re not correct!” Sanfield snapped in what, as he promised, turned out to be a very short telephone interview. “I’m working with the editors at the Press-Telegram, working with Rich [Archbold] and John [Futch], looking at how we can do things as a group, more efficiently, between our two papers. Okay? Thanks.”

Sanfield cut off a follow-up question by hanging up.

But his denial was contradicted by several of the P-T’s reporters. “Sanfield has told us that, when push comes to shove, he has the authority to make the decisions,” said Segura. “He has said it a number of times. He’s not too shy about talking to reporters who are not from The District.”

Tags: Daily Breeze, Daily News, dean singleton, death of journalism, Joe Segura, John Futch, Long Beach, Mark Ficarra, medianews group, Philip Stansfield, press telegram, Rich Archbold, Torrance