Editors Note: There has been a lot of chatter this week about the Los Angeles Times’ recent state of turmoil. And as the goliath paper turns to the Web, we thought it would be interesting to highlight the history of the LA Times through a different lens.

The following comes from Smith – as he describes the history of the Times in Los Angeles. His architectural prescriptions are forthcoming.

The Los Angeles Times has an extremely rich past that is woven into the fabric of L.A. history. Historically, the capital behind The Times was involved in the construction of the Owens river aqueduct, helping to lure the film industry to Southern California, and spearheading the development of a large portion of the downtown L.A. arts infrastructure.

Despite this suite of civic initiatives, the historical image of the paper is tainted by a fierce anti-labour legacy and questionable journalistic merit until the 1960’s when the paper came into its own under Otis Chandler. Circulation of the Times peaked in 1990 at about 1,200,000 copies and the paper stumbled through the remainder of the decade in an era marked by constant shifts in management and a steady erosion of circulation. In 2000, the Chicago based Tribune Company purchased the Times-Mirror Corporation and despite being the third most circulated daily in America, the paper has remained in a state of turmoil ever since.

The LA Times Web LayoutI’ve chosen to devote my Masters of Architecture thesis project Movable Parts: The Retooling of the Los Angeles Times to reconsider the role of the Times as an online entity and as a Protagonist in the city of Los Angeles. Since the paper has faltered in the horse race with the New York Times and Washington Post, I posit that the paper could redefine itself through restructuring into a more participatory publication rather then attempting to boost circulation through adopting an increasingly tabloid format.

Why would the Times be an ideal candidate for facilitating the fusion of citizen-powered journalism and a major American newspaper? The answer is twofold, and relates to the history of technical innovation at the Times and the role of the paper in its local community.

The Los Angeles Times has a history of technical innovation. The Times was an early adopter of radio, local television, cable technology, and co-launched an international news service with the Washington Post. Like many major dailies the Times ventured online in 1994, offering a newsfeed through Prodigy online services. The daily launched its first Web site in 1996, and their online presence evolved rapidly over the last decade. A new Times editorial policy has shifted the emphasis of content development so that latimes.com is not just a sidebar to the printed version of the paper. This policy does not go far enough though. If the Times wants to develop their Web profile in 2007 it is not enough to reallocate and retrain staff, what is needed is a reconsideration of what the readers can bring to the publication.

The L.A. Times attempted a brief foray into citizen journalism with its 2005 wikitorial project under editor Michael Kinsley which allowed readers to rewrite editorials. This “public-beta,” the first such experiment by a major news organization in North America, was short lived as the Times was not adequately prepared for wiki management and administration. While this may seem like a relatively minor development within the last decade, Movable Parts considers it a touchstone through which the daily could revitalize itself by adopting a journalistic model much like that of Ohmynews, the South Korean Daily where 80% of content is provided by readers.

Under the Chandler family the influence of the Times was used as a vehicle to significantly influence municipal and state politics. While many of these interventions were not altruistic, philanthropy and civic boosterism that originated at the Times did help provide cultural and civic infrastructure to the populace of Los Angeles. The Times has identified it is at a crossroads, why not move beyond simply responding to the market and be the first major American daily to embrace citizen journalism? Considering the recent financial performance of the Times, the paper has nothing to lose and everything to gain. In many ways a significant move towards citizen journalism would bring the history of the paper full circle, reasserting it as an active and vital agent in municipal culture.

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Greg J. Smith is currently working on his Masters of Architecture thesis project at al&d at the University of Toronto. Outside of academic research, he has written about art, technology and music for various Canadian publications including Coupe & Shift, and is a site editor for rhizome.org. He co-curates and edits Vague Terrain an online digital arts quarterly. Greg was recently awarded a fellowship to the University of Southern California for a forthcoming multimedia drawing project which will be published in Vectors, The Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular.