The Daily Briefing

PRESS-TELEGRAM PUBLISHER GIVES NOTICE

Theo DouglasSat. June 06
 

According to the Press-Telegram, its publisher Mark Ficarra–who’s also publisher of the P-T sister paper, the Daily Breeze of Torrance–will leave MediaNews Group some time in the next several weeks to become the San Diego Union-Tribune’s vice president of sales and marketing.

This must mean there are jobs in journalism after all. Or … maybe just a job–Ficarra’s. No word yet on who will replace him.

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  • Former PTer
    More updates on the PT and its future...
    The word is they're looking for cheaper digs. They apparently haven't ruled out leaving Long Beach all together. They've announced the goal to be out of the ARCO Towers by the end of 2009. In the meantime they're also kicking out the credit union and taking over their office to house personnel from the 14th floor.
    For details: http://lbguild9400.blogspot.com/
  • eric
    On a different note (sort of), I've been noticing a lot of new names in the Press-Telegram. Are they new hires, or are they coming over from the Breeze? Anyone know?
  • former PTer
    There aren't any new hires. In fact the newest "hire" was laid off last fall after about 6 months at the paper. There are stories from other "sister" papers, including the Breeze, being run in the PT. For some time, company policy has been to label all Medianews-employed writers as "staff writers" regardless of their "home" newspaper.
    The PT has some summer interns again this year so you'll be seeing a few more names, most definitely not new hires. The paper is still cutting costs, in that vein they're giving up their 14th floor newsroom and relocating all the remaining reporters (and other staff) to the much smaller first floor space.
  • The Toad
    As far as I am concerned, the PT hasn't had a publisher worth a damn since Ian LaMont. I guess it is the rate of turnover in that job that really makes this story news-worthy. At least one member of my family has subscribed to the PT (or its predecessors) since the 1930's; its accelerating rate of decline is truly appalling.
  • Pat
    between this, Register's CEO Scott Flanders going to Playboy, LA Weekly EIC Laurie Ochoa leaving, and others, there's lots of movement locally. Some good and some bad.

    Theo, you guys aren't gonna announce anything anytime soon are you?
  • Neena
    Hmmmmm - wonder who will fill the slot - and for how long?
  • Theo Douglas
    Hi, Toad, good question. The answer: Mark Ficarra is leaving the company that owns the P-T. The newspaper he's joining, the Union-Tribune, was formerly owned by Copley--the same family-based company that owned the Daily Breeze--but it was purchased earlier this year by a concern called Platinum Equity. The P-T and the Daily Breeze (and the Grunion and Downtown Gazettes) are, of course, all owned by Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group.
  • The Toad
    A little help here please; I, for one, don't know a whole lot about which newspapers are owned by whom. Is the San Diego Union-Tribune part of the same chain that owns the PT?
  • sunshinelb
    More info: The Press Telegram and Gazette newpapers are both owned by MediaNews which owns 54 daily newspaper in 11 states. The list of MediaNews Groups Properties can be found here http://www.medianewsgroup.com/Properties/.
    San Diego Union-Tribune is not that list.
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