Tribune Forms "Online Entertainment News" Bureau; LAT and Zap2It Merge Efforts
This story was written by Rafat Ali.
Tribune, still in the middle of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, has expanded into something new, for a change: it has formed an online "entertainment news bureau" that that will provide original, multimedia content to the company's newspaper and TV websites. The bureau will merge the resources of Los Angeles Times, other Trib-owned newspapers and TV stations, and Zap2it, the Tribune Media Services-owned entertainment listings portal. TMS itself may be a sale candidate, according to previous reports.
As to what this bureau will do, that is slightly confusing: "The bureau will will leverage writers and reporters from across Tribune to bring readers constantly updated blogs and other multimedia news on more than 60 top TV shows. One of the team's first editorial projects will be a behind-the-scenes look at the unstoppable phenomenon of 'American Idol.' While located at The Times, the bureau's editorial content will be aggregated on the Zap2it portal, which will be enhanced and re-launched early this year," the company said.
This comes as LAT keeps on cutting jobs: late last month it did its third round of layoffs in less than six months.
By Rafat Ali