Latest posts
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Jim Ladd lands at SiriusXM Deep Tracks — December 2011, after the KLOS-and-KFI farewell
By Sasha Park · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, December 2011 In early December 2011, longtime LA classic-rock DJ Jim Ladd — who had been unceremoniously dumped from KLOS 95.5 earlier in the year and then given a farewell show by KFI AM 640 — landed a nightly slot on…
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The October 2011 John and Ken boycott — KFI, Clear Channel, and immigrant-rights advocacy
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Marcus Vanderberg on FishbowlLA, October 2011 In early October 2011, an immigrant-rights coalition announced it was moving forward with a boycott of the John and Ken Show on KFI AM 640 after KFI management canceled a scheduled meeting between the coalition and station leadership. Greg…
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Jonathan Gold’s April 2011 Olive Garden review — how the April Fools joke produced an actual LA Weekly piece
By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Pandora Young on FishbowlLA, April 2011 In early April 2011, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold — then writing for the LA Weekly — found himself eating at the Arcadia Olive Garden after what had started as an April Fools joke on his photographer Anne…
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Joseph Farrell, National Research Group founder, dies — December 2011 obit and the Hollywood test-screening legacy
By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, December 2011 In early December 2011, Joseph Farrell — the founder of National Research Group (NRG) and the Hollywood marketing-research pioneer who substantially shaped modern test-screening practice — died from natural causes. His death was covered in the LA Times by…
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LAPD’s October 2011 social-media policy review — Detective Sal LaBarbera and the cops-on-Twitter question
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, October 2011 In mid-October 2011, FishbowlLA tracked the LAPD’s internal-policy struggle over what officers should and shouldn’t post on Twitter and other social media platforms. The trigger had been LAPD Homicide Detective Sal LaBarbera’s posting of a crime-scene photograph and related…
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Variety’s Showblitz paywall workaround, and why nobody ended up needing it
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive → In August 2011 the most-discussed entertainment-trade story wasn’t an exclusive — it was a paywall problem. Variety was breaking film news daily that nobody was citing because the URLs were locked. The trade tried to solve it with a free shadow…
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Ashley Dunn’s ‘we don’t get ulcers, we give ulcers’ memo — a 2011 LAT layoff snapshot
By Maya Trent · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer (2011) · Wayback archive → In late July 2011 the LA Times went through another round of layoffs. California editor Ashley Dunn sent his Metro desk a pep-talk memo that has, in retrospect, become one of the small canonical artifacts of how working editors held their…
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Nikki Finke partners with Paramount on a Deadline Hollywood game
By Sasha Park · Republished 2026-05-20 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, 2011 In July 2011 FishbowlLA reported one of the more unexpected line extensions in entertainment-news history: Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com was getting a Facebook game. Then Deadline.com, in partnership with Paramount Digital Entertainment and Liquid Entertainment, announced a Facebook game — one…
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When Tribune’s 2011 consolidation skipped the LA Times — the seven-year-long sale signal
By Maya Trent · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer (2011) · Wayback archive → In mid-July 2011 Tribune Company announced a major consolidation of its publishing division — folding the Sun Sentinel, Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, The Morning Call, and the Virginia Daily Press under a single new CEO based in Chicago. Conspicuously…