Evan George reports that LA City Beat and the Pasadena Weekly ran the same cover story (LACB, PW) - with the same headline and photos of the same dude - a few weeks apart.(I'm interested because 1) I'm a former stringer for a newspaper 60 miles away in a different city, and 2) I live along the LA-Glendale "border" between these two papers.)
So what's their excuse: Evan George's observation of financial and editorial laziness by a common owner, or PW editor Kevin Urich's need to distribute his own "outstanding" piece to the biggest possible audience?
It's silly to argue that the papers "intersect slightly only in border areas like southern Glendale and downtown LA." National Guard efforts aside, newspaper readers don't stay on their side of the line.
How many Angelenos slum in Old Town, absently picking up PW? How many Pasadenans (is that a word?) desire home furnishings beyond Z Gallerie, and must venture into The City, accidentally browsing LACB?
Worse, how many media junkies pick up both - or, like me, see both online? Surely the eighth largest city in Los Angeles County has enough stories to cover its own.
Ironically, this twice-baked article covers the struggle of alternative newspapers to remain relevant. Might help if they ran new news on the cover.
[See the original coverage and the ensuing back-handed ass-kissing here.]
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