The Los Angeles Times

Hi! I’m back again and will be blogging about once or twice a week, depending on my whims.
I’m closing DailyComedy.com effective November 30, because we weren’t close to breaking even, and I had to save what money I had left for my retirement. I cancelled my book deal–Media Selling III as as it was taking too much time. I got fired from teaching at The New School while I was in the hospital. So, I don’t have any teaching to do. Thus, when I have some spare time, I’ll blog, which, other than Julia, is my only indulgence now.
In June before I got really sick (I’m much, much better now), my good pal in Los Angeles, Vince Thompson, had me see the Los Angeles Times. We discussed doing some sales training for the company’s sales team. Apparently, I pissed off the LA Times sales managers when I spoke to them. After reading the long Wall Street Journal story last week, thank the Lord it didn’t work out.
Can you imagine doing sales seminars for newspaper salespeople? I would have been mauled trying to teach old dogs new tricks. If the Chicago Tribune can’t teach the LA Times anything, then what chance do I have? I’d be bucking an irreversible trend by trying to bail out a sinking sales team. Newspaper sales are not coming back. Newspapers, even now, don’t want to change; don’t want to learn anything, like the WSJ story indicated, and I don’t think a 74-year old guy shouting at them is going to change it.
I’m well out of it, and the Chandlers will be well out of their LA Times investment when the paper is finally sold. I hope they invest at least some of their new found money from the sale of their once-proud newspaper in Internet properties.
By the way, have I got a deal for them–a hot start-up Internet property. I wish I’d thought of this sooner. I was pitching the wrong thing. I should have been pitching the future. But I made the mistake of pitching the past. If I’d gone even furter back, I might have made the sale.