Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Will self-driving cars and delivery drones take your job?

Publisher’s perils

Austin Beutner’s dismissal has been tied to Eli Broad’s bid to take over the L.A. Times and U-T.
Austin Beutner’s dismissal has been tied to Eli Broad’s bid to take over the L.A. Times and U-T.

Forty-eight hours before Union-Tribune and L.A. Times Democratic publisher Austin Beutner was fired last week, the U-T was out with a prescient Labor Day editorial entitled “The foreboding future of work.” Said the paper’s opinion piece: “Self-driving cars, package-delivering drones, and automated coffee kiosks have the potential to wipe out millions of service jobs.” The piece continued, “The further grim news is that it appears that there will be financial and political muscle promoting these rapid changes, even if they have a wrenching effect on society.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Concluded the U-T’s second-to-last editorial under the now-unemployed Beutner: “The silver lining in this cloud is the hope that democracy rises to the challenge posed by this economic revolution — that our leaders find a way to maintain a broadly affluent society, one that uses lifelong career education opportunities to keep job skills fresh and that creates strong incentives for job creation.”

Editor Jeff Light can claim credit for the Union-Tribune’s most optimistic quote of the week: “There is a lot more stability here than you might assume,” he told the paper. ... Loyal U-T readers observed that during Beutner’s last days the U-T website had been increasingly linking to stories carried by the online version of its sister publication, the Los Angeles Times. In at least one case last week — the bankruptcy of supermarket chain Haggen — the story wouldn’t appear for U-T subscribers unless they purchased a subscription to the Times. The glitch was subsequently remedied.

It made headlines when Beutner’s firing was tied to reports that Los Angeles billionaire Democrat Eli Broad had made a bid to take over both the U-T and the L.A. Times in the weeks leading up the publisher’s dismissal. A key ally is La Jolla’s Buzz Woolley, chairman of Voice of San Diego, an online news and opinion outfit, and a longtime comrade-in-arms with Broad in controversial school-reform efforts and charter-school promotion.

According to ElectionTrack.com, on April 3 Broad came up with $50,000 for the California Charter Schools Association Advocates Independent Expenditure Committee. Broad is said to still be pursuing an eventual acquisition of the two news outlets from their current owner, Chicago-based Tribune Publishing.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Classical Classical at The San Diego Symphony Orchestra

A concert I didn't know I needed
Austin Beutner’s dismissal has been tied to Eli Broad’s bid to take over the L.A. Times and U-T.
Austin Beutner’s dismissal has been tied to Eli Broad’s bid to take over the L.A. Times and U-T.

Forty-eight hours before Union-Tribune and L.A. Times Democratic publisher Austin Beutner was fired last week, the U-T was out with a prescient Labor Day editorial entitled “The foreboding future of work.” Said the paper’s opinion piece: “Self-driving cars, package-delivering drones, and automated coffee kiosks have the potential to wipe out millions of service jobs.” The piece continued, “The further grim news is that it appears that there will be financial and political muscle promoting these rapid changes, even if they have a wrenching effect on society.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Concluded the U-T’s second-to-last editorial under the now-unemployed Beutner: “The silver lining in this cloud is the hope that democracy rises to the challenge posed by this economic revolution — that our leaders find a way to maintain a broadly affluent society, one that uses lifelong career education opportunities to keep job skills fresh and that creates strong incentives for job creation.”

Editor Jeff Light can claim credit for the Union-Tribune’s most optimistic quote of the week: “There is a lot more stability here than you might assume,” he told the paper. ... Loyal U-T readers observed that during Beutner’s last days the U-T website had been increasingly linking to stories carried by the online version of its sister publication, the Los Angeles Times. In at least one case last week — the bankruptcy of supermarket chain Haggen — the story wouldn’t appear for U-T subscribers unless they purchased a subscription to the Times. The glitch was subsequently remedied.

It made headlines when Beutner’s firing was tied to reports that Los Angeles billionaire Democrat Eli Broad had made a bid to take over both the U-T and the L.A. Times in the weeks leading up the publisher’s dismissal. A key ally is La Jolla’s Buzz Woolley, chairman of Voice of San Diego, an online news and opinion outfit, and a longtime comrade-in-arms with Broad in controversial school-reform efforts and charter-school promotion.

According to ElectionTrack.com, on April 3 Broad came up with $50,000 for the California Charter Schools Association Advocates Independent Expenditure Committee. Broad is said to still be pursuing an eventual acquisition of the two news outlets from their current owner, Chicago-based Tribune Publishing.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

SDSU to City College students: Drop dead

Todd Gloria, successful money hound
Next Article

Tigers In Cairo owes its existence to Craigslist

But it owes its name to a Cure tune and a tattoo
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader