Geoff West, who blogs over at the Bubbling Cauldron blog, covers Costa Mesa and Newport politics and news. His blog was selected as the best blog in Orange County this year by the O.C. Weekly. West recently wrote about a meeting he attended where a former publisher and a former editor of the Daily Pilot newspaper spoke to the community about their plan to start up an online newspaper to cover news in that area, with perhaps a once a week printed newspaper.
Tom Johnson and Bill Lobdell are the former Daily Pilot honchos, and their meeting was very well attended, according to West. He wrote that “In addition to Johnson and Lobdell, there were a few other former Daily Pilot staffers – Tony Dodero, who recently departed after a long and illustrious career; Lana Johnson, who has joined Lobdell and Tom Johnson in their endeavor, and former (twice) Daily Pilot columnist and public relations consultant Byron de Arakal.”
West added that, “Among the others in attendance were Realtor and Newport Mesa Unified School Board President Dana Black and Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau were in the group, as was former California Secretary of Education Marian Bergeson. Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Richard Luehrs, business leaders Brent Hemphill, Paula Wilhelm and Kirk McIntosh – who heads up the Daily Pilot Cup youth soccer tournament – were also there to provide comments and guidance. As you can see, there were many “heavy hitters” in the group.”
The new venture headed by Johnson and Lobdell is called “Operation Local News.” They state on their website that, “Operation Local News has set a tentative deadline of March 1 to decide whether giving Newport-Mesa a quality daily local news operation–similar to the Daily Pilot in its heyday–is something residents and businesses would support with readership, advertising and voluntary donations. So far, it looks more promising than Tom or Bill had imagined, but the goal line is still a ways down the field.”
I hope that Johnson and Lobdell succeed! I love newspapers and it breaks my heart to see them going down the drain. The Daily Pilot today is a shell of what it used to be, as its owner, the Tribune Company, is in dire financial straits.
Things used to be so simple back in the day. Our newest blogger, John Seiler, wondered recently on his blog whether or not we should just go back to print newspapers. Alas, Pandora’s Box has been opened and there is no going back…
Before my 1968 graduation from San Jose State where I was editor of the school magazine, I was editor of The Barnacle, official school newspaper of Orange Coast College.
Every week my staff and I trucked down to the Pilot’s office on the Peninsula and checked the galleys and proofed the next issue of our little paper.
Oddly, it was a prideful feeling to see the ink on our fingers and feel the cuts from the Exacto knives as we worked. And the Pilot’s printers were always there for advice and support, before printing our paper, swiftly, in a few minutes.
Yes, yes, Internet papers are faster, cheaper to produce, easier to edit, etc., etc., etc., but I still miss the old ways, the rattle of the Merganthaler LinoType machines in the background, and at a main newspaper printing facility, the thundering rumble of a giant Merganthaler Press in full run.