Daily News

Composing room workers at the Daily News of Los Angeles, whose contract expires at midnight tonight, have voted to strike but have not set a deadline. The Daily News, which also publishes Ventura County editions, says the positions have become obsolete because of a new computer pagination system that would eliminate the need for manual layout and composing work. The Woodland Hills-based newspaper plans to eliminate about 70 of the 83 composing room jobs.

Rupert Murdoch has pulled the plug on News Corp.'s high-profile experiment to create a digital national newspaper. The demise of the Daily, announced Monday by News Corp., illustrates the challenges the media baron faces as he attempts to transform his global publishing empire for the Internet age. The Daily was introduced nearly two years ago as the first news application for Apple Inc.'s iPad and was designed to dazzle a generation of young...

John Schueler on Tuesday was named publisher of the Daily News of Los Angeles. Schueler, 51, succeeds Ike Massey, who is leaving the newspaper June 30. Massey resigned in May, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family and pursue unspecified other interests. Schueler's appointment was made by MediaNews Group Inc. of Denver, which operates the Daily News and seven other Southern California dailies through its Los Angeles Newspaper Group. It takes effect July 9.

We on the Los Angeles Times editorial page generally think of our endorsements as being smart and comprehensive rather than skewing right or left, although there are conservatives and progressives who might take issue with that characterization. Endorsements from the Daily News and the other papers in the Los Angeles Newspaper Group tend to lean, by comparison, to the right of The Times, although it's usually a fairly moderate version of right. So how do we compare this year?

Jane Amari, managing editor-features at the Woodland Hills-based Daily News, has replaced Douglas R. Dowie, who abruptly resigned as managing editor-news on Friday. Dowie, who had held the managing editor-news post for three years, said he resigned to return with his family to the East Coast. In a prepared statement, Daily News editor Robert W. Burdick said: "During Doug's tenure the newspaper has made extraordinary progress.

David J. Auger, a cable-television marketing executive, has been named publisher of the Daily News newspaper in Woodland Hills, effective Aug. 7. Auger, 33, succeeds Robert Steven Morris, who after two years on the job resigned in June to pursue other interests. The Daily News is owned by Washington businessman Jack Kent Cooke, whose holdings also include the Washington Redskins football team and the Chrysler building in New York.

After more than a year of contract talks, the management of the Daily News on Monday offered newsroom employees a contract that fell short of union demands for higher salaries and failed to guarantee minimum levels of union membership. The offer set the stage for a possible strike at the Woodland Hills-based newspaper after union members vote on the contract Feb. 6.

Byron C. Campbell resigned Monday as publisher of the Daily News in Van Nuys, effective immediately, citing "a difference in management style" with the newspaper's owner, Jack Kent Cooke. Campbell, 53, would not elaborate on his differences with Cooke, but did confirm that one area of disagreement was the dismantling earlier this year of the newspaper's 12-member human resources department, which handled personnel policies, training and employee benefits.

Averting a split among the Daily News' newsroom employees, a group of reporters and photographers decided to remain on strike today rather than take up an offer to cross picket lines and reclaim their jobs. "We're willing to give the strike more time," reporter Paul LaRosa said. "There's no point in going back now."

As the strike against the New York Daily News by 2,500 union members enters the second week, the News' elaborate strategy to deliver and sell the nation's third-largest daily in the nation's biggest union town seems to be losing some momentum. The News' management, aided by as many as 150 reporters who have crossed picket lines, is managing to write and print the paper, increasingly well, each day.

Stay out of Alec Baldwin's way! The"30 Rock" star and fiancée Hilaria Thomas aren't smiling for photo ops from the paparazzi, or anyone from the New York Daily News, for that matter. The "Rock of Ages" actor allegedly punched Daily News photographer Marcus Santos in the chin for snapping a picture while he and Thomas were obtaining a marriage license in New York on Tuesday morning. "He was looking mad," Santos, 42, told his paper. "He said, 'Step back, step back.' I said, 'We're moving back.'" Baldwin allegedly grabbed another photographer, and when Santos tried to stop him, Baldwin came after Santos.

One of the amusing things about Tim Tebow going to the New York Jets is that for as long as he's relevant there, we're going to be treated to humorous headlines -- and occasional clunkers -- in the New York tabloids. The Thursday editions of the Daily News and the Post traded, predictably, on religious themes, given the high profile of Tebow's faith. The Daily News cover featured a close-up of the quarterback's smiling face and the headline: "Gang Green gets Tebow AMEN!"

Former Los Angeles Times executive Jack Klunder has been named publisher of the Daily News in Woodland Hills. Klunder's appointment will take effect Monday, the Daily News said. Klunder, a 34-year veteran of the newspaper industry, most recently was The Times' executive vice president of circulation and distribution. The Daily News, which circulates mostly in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas, is owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc.

Remember the Little Red Hen? She's the one in the folk tale who asks the other barnyard animals if they will help her cut the wheat, grind it into flour and bake the bread. They refuse. But when the warm bread emerges from the oven, they are eager to help the hen eat it. Now let's suppose the story continues, with the Little Red Hen opening a roadside stand to sell her bread.

The newspaper consists of a small office with one authentically untidy desk and one bare but for a borrowed laptop. A couple of chairs. Newspapers and papers stacked on the floor. And Boss Barns. That would be Barnabas Thondhlana, one of Zimbabwe's best-known newspapermen. He sits at the messy desk, explaining the vague order in the various piles. The big one is job applications, hundreds of them. The ones he doesn't like (including those of four former state spies) get thrown onto the floor.

Journalistic trend-spotters say the recession is whetting the public's appetite for happier stories from their daily news outlets. After all those reports about foreclosures, layoffs and bailouts, audiences are clamoring for more pennies from heaven -- tales of good Samaritans, thriving new businesses and trend-bucking investments. It's a lament familiar to us nattering nabobs of negativism. We hear it in good times too.

Eight out of the 10 unions at the New York Daily News went on strike Thursday night over a labor grievance that had sparked violence during a truck drivers' walkout earlier in the day. The action climaxed a bitter, month-long standoff between the money-losing tabloid and its unions, which have been without a contract for six months as they have resisted the News' demands for work-rule changes and wage cuts worth at least $50 million a year.

At least four executives from the 150,403-circulation daily went to Chicago this week to discuss buying the suburban paper from Tribune Co. The group proposed acquiring the Daily News through a leveraged buy-out. Tribune Co. must sell the Daily News as part of its purchase of KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles for $510 million. The executive group includes Editor Timothy M. Kelly, Vice President Thomas E. Griffiths, Information Systems Director Gerald W.

The man whom admirers call the "Patrick Henry of the Valley" is stepping down from his bully pulpit. The Los Angeles Daily News announced Friday that its editor, Ron Kaye, was resigning after a 23-year tenure that helped define the modern image of the San Fernando Valley.

David A. Paterson, minutes after being sworn in as New York's 55th governor, sought Monday to woo lawmakers with humor, inspiring words about public service and a call for compromise in the face of a potential economic meltdown. It was a stark contrast to his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, who warred with lawmakers for much of his 14 1/2 -month tenure. The audience seemed relieved and thrilled that a man they had perceived as a self-righteous bully had been replaced by one of their own.