I’ve confirmed with multiple sources that editor Kris Lindgren has indeed been laid off from the Los Angeles Times. Her last day is Friday. This is a terrible loss for the books section. I worked with Kris on a few reviews, and she was a fantastic editor, often forcing me to come up with some taut sentences in a very small window of time. (That’s part of the fun of journalism.) She was also one of the few editors who not only knew many of my esoteric references, but was very curious about many of the literary precedents that I cited. I certainly hope that her great talents will land her somewhere safe.
For those keeping score, that leaves books coverage duties at the Los Angeles Times down to three people. Sara Lippincott and Josh Getlin have also been laid off.
[RELATED: A remarkable exchange between Lee Abrams and a young Chicago Tribune reader.]
This fucking sucks. Kris edited my very first piece for the Book Review and my most recent one, so I feel like there’s a weird sort of bookending thing going on. But from the getgo, she always understood what I was trying to do and what I wanted to say and brought out my voice and my intentions, even as she trimmed and pruned and honed with careful precision and attention I’d hardly seen before. Her work was a mark of the Book Review’s high editing standards, and letting her go is just another sad example of how out of touch, and how willfully destructive, Zell & co. are about the newspapers they “claim” they are trying to revitalize for the 21st century.
The remarkable exchange link isn’t working. This one does, though: http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:RYg1yrwunaoJ:www.tellzell.com/+tellzell&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=safari
Thanks, Google cache.
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