Former mayor Riordan plans to start newspaper to challenge Los Angeles Times

AP ^ | 4-17-02 | Erica Werner

[Dan from Michigan]

Former mayor Riordan plans to start newspaper to challenge Los Angeles Times

By ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
4/17/02 10:07 PM

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Former Mayor Richard Riordan said Wednesday he plans to start a newspaper offering an alternative voice to the Los Angeles Times, the paper he feuded with during his eight years in office.

Riordan, 71, a multimillionaire who last month lost a bid to become the Republican candidate for governor, said he hopes to start publishing this summer and focus on local news with columns about the media and the Internet.

His target audience would be 25- to 50-year-old homeowners. Riordan has not yet decided on a name or whether the paper would publish daily.

Riordan, who stepped down as mayor in June, accused the Times of ignoring positive stories about Los Angeles and focusing on national and international news to the exclusion of local stories.

This town needs a paper that's going to put our city more into perspective and show more respect for the city," Riordan said in an interview with The Associated Press. "

Times officials did not immediately return a call for comment.

Riordan expected the start-up cost to be at least $5 million and said there would be other investors. Riordan would serve as editor-in-chief.

In addition to the Times, the area is served by the Daily News and two alternative weeklies, the L.A. Weekly and New Times, and dozens of ethnic papers and niche publications.

Riordan's announcement came one day after a new broadsheet in New York, The Sun, hit the streets.

"The history of establishing a daily newspaper in a market already served by an established daily is pretty much a history of unrelieved failure," said newspaper analyst John Morton with Maryland-based Morton Research Co.

Morton said it would cost tens of millions of dollars to start a daily and keep it going.

[Dan from Michigan]

Can't be worse than the Slime..except those f'ers at LA Weekly with their hit pieces on FR...wait, the Slimes are suing FR..

I can't believe I'm cheering for Riordan here. I hope he puts the Slimes out of business.

[ElkGroveDan]

I can't imagine that Riordan's newspaper would be idealogically any different from the LA Times.

[randog]

I can't either.

There's an 'alternative' paper in my town, but it's left of the left-of-center established paper, so I can't figure what it's an alternative to.

[Nachum]

The R.I.N.O. Times?

[jimkress]

You've heard of Dumb and Dumber? This would be Left and Further Left

[Mark Turbo]

The Rhino Times already exists. It's actually a solidly conservative weekly newspaper. I used to read it every week when I still lived in North Carolina.

[Nachum]

Republican In Name Only

[Dan from Michigan]

Considering Davis is to the RIGHT of Riordan, I expect a paper slightly to the right of the LA Slimes...that means it's slightly to the left of the Lansing State(ist) Jour(uri)nal.

[Nachum]

Republican In Name Only

[Nachum]

I'd like to think almost anything would be better the Los Angeles Slimes, but knowing Reardon one never knows.

[al-andalus]

He should bring back the old Herald-Examiner. Best sports page in town. Doug Krikorian, Alan Malamud...uh-oh, I'm getting nostalgic.

[DennisR]

You must live in or near Seattle.

[DentsRun]

What did the LA Weekly say about Free Republic? You know the former editor of the LA Weekly is now the Sunday opinion section editor for the LA Times. And considering the rest of the paper she's actually doing a good job. She's a liberal through and through. But for some reason she also thinks alternative points of view should also be heard, such as for instance on issues like the Middle-East. Institutions change in unexpected ways. And the Times has a great editorial cartoonist. He's way to the right of 90% of the people who work for the Times, and I'm counting truck drivers and pressmen too.

[Dan from Michigan]

The Weekly called FR a hate site in 99 and 00.

[Clemenza]

The Weekly called FR a hate site in 99 and 00.

Is the Weekly owned by Morris Dees?

[Dan from Michigan]

I have no idea.