The L.A. Times Building

Big Changes Afoot For L.A. Times Food Section

Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times Photo: Omar Omar via Flickr

Buzz has slowly been building that big changes were about to smack up The L.A. Times’ Food Section, no less in the wake of this week’s news that Jonathan Gold was bailing L.A. Weekly. Squid Ink star and former Food Section staffer Amy Scattergood mines the full scoop today from the paper to detail its new model. First The Times plans to put a paywall onto its website on March 5th, potentially forcing us to start subscribing again just as we’ve convinced our progenitors that they actually don’t have to pay for the thing.

As for the foodiest part of the paper, The Food Section will be folded into a new Lifestyle parcel that also includes its “Home” and “Health” sections, to be released on Saturdays, potentially making us reschedule our Other Critics wrap-up to Monday (because it’s all about us over here).

Editor Russ Parsons tells Scattergood, “This new Saturday section will incorporate the best of our food and dining coverage, including recipes, restaurant reviews, wine recommendations, and everything else, and it will deliver it on a day when most of our readers are actually thinking about going out to eat, visiting farmers markets, and throwing dinner parties.” The Times’ Daily Dish will not be affected, as far as it appears, while Jonathan Gold’s first piece as a returning paper employee will “likely run in the first issue of the new section, on March 10th.

Don’t know about you, but we’re already tiring of all this media-driven insecurity. Hopefully, the dust settles soon and we know who’s replacing Gold and get his voice back soon, whether it’s in The Weekly, The Times, or heck, even The friggin’ Argonaut.

Los Angeles Times Food Section: Folding into “Saturday” + A Paywall Going Up [LAW]

Big Changes Afoot For L.A. Times Food Section