BUSINESS
May 16, 2012 | By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times said its Sunday magazine, facing tough challenges, will cease publication. LA, Los Angeles Times Magazine will print its final issue June 3, Kathy K. Thomson, president and chief operating officer, said in an email Tuesday to employees. The magazine came out weekly until 2008, when the paper's editorial department stopped publishing it. The Los Angeles Times Media Group then put out the magazine in a monthly format. "The entire magazine industry has been faced with a very challenging environment," Thomson wrote.
TRAVEL
May 13, 2012 | By Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
The Portland Hop. I know, it sounds like a dance craze in 1937. But really, it's what you do when Southern California gets you down and you need to drink small-batch beer, eat Northwestern locavore meals and see bike commuters in the rain. My wife, daughter and I hit Portland, Ore., for a few days last August. Here's the report. The bed. Once a Days Inn, the Hotel Modera (515 S.W. Clay St.; [503] 484-1084, hotelmodera.com; rooms for two start at about $129 in spring) got a serious upgrade before opening in 2008.
ENTERTAINMENT
May 6, 2012 | By Karen Wada, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Dragons, graffiti, cartoon heroes. Gajin Fujita is known for mixing Japanese art with L.A. street and pop culture in paintings fueled by his eclectic imagination and experiences as a Japanese American from Boyle Heights. The Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena is spotlighting a major influence on these East-meets-Eastside creations: Fujita's passion for ukiyo-e , the woodblock prints that flourished in 17th- to 19th-century Japan. "Gajin Fujita: Ukiyo-e in Contemporary Painting," which opened in April, is what curator Bridget Bray calls "a focused solo exhibition of five pieces in which you see parallels to the print tradition such as dynamic compositions, martial figures, attention to surface detail and dramatization of the natural and supernatural worlds.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 22, 2012 | By Irene Lacher, For the Los Angeles Times
Robert Weil, formerly executive editor at W.W. Norton & Co., is at the helm of the company's recently revived imprint, Liveright & Co., well known for publishing great early 20th-century writers. Liveright's new editor in chief and publishing director, scheduled to appear on a panel about the nuts and bolts of publishing at this weekend's Festival of Books, talks about Norton's surprising move and other issues facing the book industry. Let's talk about how and why the Liveright imprint was revived.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 14, 2012 | By Mike Anton, Los Angeles Times
Reading habits may be fundamentally changing, but a new survey shows that the printed word remains fundamental. Although many Californians who own Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers love their gadgets, they still prefer books the old-fashioned way - on paper - according to a poll by USC Dornsife and the Los Angeles Times. Even with sales of e-readers surging, only 10% of respondents who have one said they had abandoned traditional books. More than half said most or all of the books they read are in printed form.
BUSINESS
March 31, 2012 | By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times
Ford Motor Co. has made what it pays its top executives about as transparent as any company in America. While many public companies hide their executive compensation data in the fine print of regulatory filings, Ford simply put out a news release that outlined what the bosses were making in fairly simple terms. It also filed the information with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Chief Executive Alan Mulally, the former Boeing executive credited with helping Ford avoid the bankruptcy reorganizations and federal bailouts that sustained General Motors and Chrysler during the recession, earned $29.5 million in total compensation last year.