L.os Angeles Times cuts 75 more jobs including real estate reporters

I just heard from a real estate reporter (and friend) at the L.A. Times that her job has been eliminated along with 74 others, including the former editor of the real estate section, with whom I had worked and had one of the best working relationships in my career(s), writing or otherwise. Click here for the coverage of the layoffs from the Times.

Although I know that it's a tough time for traditional newspapers, this is very sad news for Southern California because it leaves the Times -- the largest daily on the West Coast the #4 in the nation in terms of circulation -- with very little local or regional coverage of real estate.

While some would argue that blogs can take up the slack, I would in turn tell them that they really know nothing at all about blogging. Blogs are about citing other news stories and writing short articles, and not providing the sort of in-depth coverage that a large newspaper can do. And if everyone's blogging, then who writes the longer articles to cite? Oh, I know -- osmosis!

Regardless of whatever political arguments readers might have had with the Times (many found it too left-leaning in recent years), I don't think that extended to the real estate coverage. Given the terrible advice doled out by real estate agents, the CAR and other from the supply side of the real estate industry during the boom years, the dearth of an important source of objective information is truly a terrible thing irrespective of the economics cited for its demise.

One can only hope that some type of appropriate replacement -- such as a website or blog that provides high-quality, feature-length stories -- will eventually arrive on the web.