Category Archives: Uncategorized

By the Numbers: 2013 a year of solid growth for latimes.com

By Jimmy Orr | Published: February 9, 2014

A note to the staff from Jimmy Orr, managing editor/digital January 31, 2014, 8:00 a.m. This is our annual look at the last year through the lens of metrics that we call “By the Numbers.” It’s intended to serve as a complementary note to Davan’s review of the year’s great journalism. Happily, they overlap. And the […]

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October digital note

By Jimmy Orr | Published: November 4, 2013

To: The Staff From: Jimmy Orr, Managing Editor, Digital Starting this month, we are renewing our efforts to highlight digital achievements throughout the newsroom. Why are we doing this?  It’s important to show what’s connecting with our readers, where the readership is coming from, and to provide another way for departments to learn from one […]

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Iron Maiden Kills it in San Bernardino

By Jimmy Orr | Published: September 16, 2013

Here’s a post I wrote for the Los Angeles Times on Iron Maiden’s appearance in San Bernardino on September 13, 2013. Tens of thousands of fans gathered in San Bernardino on Friday to chant a verse from the Book of Revelations foretelling our imminent doom. A religious revival? Of sorts. Many of the attendees would […]

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Goodbye, Blackberry

By Jimmy Orr | Published: August 18, 2012
An ancient Blackberry (circa 2002).

It’s astonishing to me to see how quickly the Blackberry has become irrelevant.  Seriously irrelevant.  Like 1% of the market. Just until a few years ago, it was the mobile device to have.  I wrestled with getting rid of mine.  I finally made the switch over to an iPhone in 2010.  It was a difficult […]

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Who wants to sit on the sidelines? It’s all about competition!

By Jimmy Orr | Published: August 15, 2012

Colin Cowherd hit the nail on the head this morning.  He was discussing people who talk about winning the lottery and what their responses tell you about them. People who say they would retire and travel aren’t really living, Cowherd said.  They’re just watching life go by.  If he wins, he’s buying an MLS team […]

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How a bad URL can derail your whole message

By Jimmy Orr | Published: July 21, 2012

I love grammar fights.  And I tend to be on the side of the grammar absolutists even though my prose needs a lot of work.  I need to be edited.  I’m constantly learning.  I write in a blocky, conversational style with plenty of colloquialisms that can easily be criticized. If you are an absolutist, you’re […]

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Don’t just do something to do something. Wait, then pounce.

By Jimmy Orr | Published: July 18, 2012

Love an article today in the Harvard Business Review on mobile strategy.  Smart for a variety of reasons but what resonated with me was a point the author was making about doing something — just to do something. When something is new, people freak.  They think they gotta get in the game.  Even when it […]

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Paywall strategy: More frequency = more readers = more subscribers

By Jimmy Orr | Published: July 15, 2012

Wanna get more subscribers?  Give readers a reason to subscribe… Not surprised at all to read the Poynter article earlier this week regarding the correlation between the amount of articles published on newspaper websites and the number of subscriptions. The study, conducted by Press+, found that the more stories you wrote, the more subscribers signed-up.  Well, […]

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Gas prices and Internet traffic — it’s all about how to measure

By Jimmy Orr | Published: July 14, 2012

First time in forever I’ve seen gas prices (all three tiers) under $4.00. When people get into discussions of gas prices, someone inevitably brings up the price of gas in Europe and how our gas is “cheap.” Actually, it’s because they tax the hell out of it.  Further, its not about what our gas prices […]

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