Read also: Lynne Segall Ousted at L.A. Times
“I’m despondent,” a person in the editorial section of the Los Angeles Times told me after I called around on 
Friday to see how reporters and editors were reacting to the ouster of Lynne Segall, the big-personality, big-revenue driver who was suddenly axed on Thursday.
Why was she dumped?
That’s what everyone in Calendar, Company Town and the Business section at the paper wants to know.
“I’m really bummed,” said one writer in the entertainment staff. “I wish I knew more.” Former editor and current movie critic Betsy Sharkey was reportedly near tears when she called Segall to confirm the news.
Why? Because those reporters and writers know that newspapers don’t survive on air.
Under Segall’s stewardship, entertainment advertising at the L.A. Times rose from $95 million to $115 million over four years, a time when every other part of the advertising pie was in decline.
Segall came from a career of ad sales and publishing at The Hollywood Reporter and brought her tight relationships with the studios to a paper often regarded as too distant from Hollywood to be relevant.
She took the online awards property “The Envelope,” and turned it into a print cash cow when most things were going in the other direction.
At a time of cutbacks and layoffs, the editorial staff of the Times’ entertainment section has actually been in growth mode, reviving Company Town – the paper’s answer to the trades- and hiring more reporters in Calendar.
So what’s gonna pay for that?
I called Segall to ask why she thinks she was eliminated. “It certainly wasn’t because of my performance,” she said defiantly.
It’s entirely possible that people on Spring Street didn’t like Lynne Segall, who was vice president the L.A. Times’ chief of entertainment and luxury ad sales. She’s loud, she’s pushy. Get over it.
And although Segall angered many on the editorial staff with the sale of a front-page column to NBC’s “Southland,” the reporters and editors on the entertainment staff were stunned and upset to see her eliminated.
“I don’t understand it,” said one writer, who declined to be named. “It’s not about her ad selling. It’s about managing up.”
By that, the writer meant chief revenue officer John O’Loughlin, promoted in August 2009.
With the paper in bankruptcy, with Segall out, with The Hollywood Reporter poaching movie advertising director Michaela Apruzzese just a week ago – let’s hope they all know what they’re doing downtown.
Read also: Lynne Segall Ousted at L.A. Times
