Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Another Celebrity Real Estate Columnist...Gone

Your Mama regrets to inform the children that Los Angeles Times celebrity real estate columnist Ann Brenoff has been relieved of her post. Just about one year ago, the 15+ year veteran of the L.A. Times took the reins of the Hot Property column from the legendary Ruth Ryon and successfully expanded the popular weekly print column to include daily blog posts that were often food and fodder for our own little online endeavor.

Miz Brenoff will continue to provide juicy tidbits to the paper until April 17. After that, our sources say the fate of the Hot Property column hangs in the balance and it remains to be seen if the beleaguered paper will make the unfortunate choice to fold up the column for good or if they'll ferret out another well connected celebrity real estate obsessed writer to carry on what is surely one of the most popular, if fluffy, feature columns at the paper.

Whatever happens, please join with Your Mama and raise a glass of expensive bubbly to Miz Brenoff for rocking our collective celebrity real estate world every damn day of the week.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just found out that a magazine I used to work for just let 6 people go...including some senior editors. Print publishing is in a sorry sorry state right now. I hope Brenoff lands on her feet.

Anonymous said...

Mama, you should do it.

Anonymous said...

70% of the news, magazine entertainment is on the internet now

there is no stopping it and more is to follow

so sad

:{ avg joe

Anonymous said...

our local paper is laying off everybody, the best food critic included. I'm sure the real estate section is next. Thank god we still have Mama!

Rich said...

Too bad so many talented people in the arts are having to take the fall for those who run the companies and are without any talent whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

Well, Mama, you are the obvious choice to replace Brenhoff... but even the NYT is getting mighty thin these days --there is still the ThursGay Styles section, but how long can that last? And isn't the LAT basically in bankruptcy? It's so obvious-- Realestalker will be folded into the LAT online edition--which is all that will be left....

Anonymous said...

good grief, why?? What awful news...

Anonymous said...

Given the state of the economy and newspaper business I can't say I'm surprised, but I am sorry to see her let go.

It's hard to see why they would replace her. If they want the real estate column they already have a capable person doing the job. You have to think they're going to dump the whole feature in order to save money.

It looks like Mama's about to corner the market on high end real estate gossip.

Good luck to Ann.

SID DELUCA said...

Peopel don't seem to be reading newspapers anymore. I love this blog stuff but there's nothing like Sunday morning in bed with The LA Times and The NY Times and Halle Berry and her husband. Oh, and some bagels and lox.

StPaulSnowman said...

It would surprise me if they do away with the column. As with movies, in times of economic anguish, people want to escape in fantasy. There will always be exciting houses and famous people. The comingling of the two will always have interest. Mama, God love her, is too edgy for any big paper. I hope she stays just where she is...........with occasional trips to NYC to keep her real.

Anonymous said...

Raising a glass of expensive bubbly and sincerely wishing Ms. Brenoff eternal joy & peace.

Mama, you have my vote to take over her column, hands down.

Anonymous said...

I hope Ann Brenoff lands on her ass. She is a TERRIBLE writer, and a lazy one, and couldn't be less interested in homes, but won't admit she's a gossip columnist, and a bad one at that, although I got the feeling from the column she thought of herself as witty. By the way, she's also a terrible liar and I don't think she was too popular at the Times either. It's a good thing she has a husband who supports her. It was such a better column when Ruth Ryon wrote it, because she at least had an interest in both the homes and the personalities.
Mama, if the Times had an ounce of sense they would hire you in a second, though of course their version of your column might have to be a bit toned down. But it sure would be smart. But let's face it, there is nothing smart about the Los Angeles Times. It has to be the worst written newspaper in any major U.S. city.

Anonymous said...

In my dream scenario David Geffen does buy the LA Times and hires Mama and turns a profit on the old bag, the paper not Mama!

Anonymous said...

If these rich hoity toity New Yorkers and Californians would just give in and price their estates, homes correctly to the real market instead of the 2007 market, they would sell quickly, the machine would start up again and these layoffs would stop

I hope these f....s end up in hell, or better yet experience hell here on earth for their stuborness

Anonymous said...

I think the whole LA Times hangs in the balance.

They have cut it down to NOTHING the last 3-4 years. I still read the LA Times, but it is a total joke now! I take my neighbor's Sunday NY Times after she is done with it. They still have a good paper and RE section.

A lot of papers might be gone in 2009.

I hope she can get picked up some by another paper.

Anonymous said...

I think they will replace her (its one of the most read sections of the L.A. TIMES) and Mama is the one for the job.

HOWEVER, I am thankful for the comments of anonymous 8:54. I couldn't agree more. I rant every time I read her column. Not only does she have a terrible faux breezy writing style that utterly lacks wit, but also her coverage is reprehensible . In one case, she reported on a transaction that was about 8 months old, as if it had just happened. She's the worst.

Anonymous said...

I live in Michigan and 3 newspapers here just reduced from 7 days a week to just 3 days a week and laid off their staff.
Also, the Ann Arbor newspaper is going to cease print operations completely.
Sad times.

Anonymous said...

Don't like to see anyone get canned, best wishes to Ms Brenoff.

That said, the column WAS much better when Ruth Ryon wrote it. She actually gave a damn about the subject!

Print media is falling apart...it's a dinosaur, it's all heading online, hell, even Liz Smith jumped online!

Anonymous said...

I always like Ann's columns. She may have cared less than Ruth, but at least she cared about being accurate, which was not really Ruth's strong point.

Anonymous said...

yeah, lets be honest here. ann was awful.

Anonymous said...

she's been a great columnist...

- ledz -

Anonymous said...

Mama is the Prince (Rogers Nelson) of real estate writers...doin it on yer own on the internets!!!

:)

Anonymous said...

With every writer comes their respective style and spin. I don't cast blame in the talent department. This is nothing more than yet another unfortunate sign of the times.

I too raise my glass and wish Ann the best.

Anonymous said...

Hugs and kisses to all! Especially Ann, who must need lots! This is so tragic and important.

The Los Angeles Times continues its long journey from semi-monopolist to competing for coffee shop space as a free give-away with the far superior Los Angeles Weekly. I figure the rest of the trip takes about two years.

Ann should make a call to Nikki Finke - a former LA Times reporter now reigning at the LA Weekly as Mistress of the Entertainment Industry Gossip Universe. Nikki is now covering the LA Times layoffs on her Deadline Hollywood Daily blog: "From what I can glean from insiders, no one covering or editing showbiz at the Los Angeles Times was laid off on Black Monday."[http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/la-times-showbiz-staff-escape-monday-layoffs/]

Who knows, maybe Nikki could swing Ann (or Mama!!!) a parallel blog/column on celebrity real estate at the LA Weekly. And maybe now that Ann has some free time she can have Nikki's baby!?

Just asking.

Anonymous said...

nice writing, kissyface! maybe YOU should apply! For real!

Anonymous said...

with all due respect, ms brenoff's take on LA RE and her writing technique put ms ryon's sense of humor in the carl reiner catagory. A-D-I-O-S ann...

Anonymous said...

The Times would like you to work for them. Salary is zero, benefits are zero. Pay for your own parking.....Maybe some junior high school newspaper staffers should apply. They should rename it the Free Press. Volunteers apply here.

Anonymous said...

The LA Times also recently combined their international edition with the Chicago Tribune.

Kissyface said...

I just heard yesterday that the Los Angeles Times is now running an operating deficit. Previously, the Times had been a profit center within the bankrupt, money-losing Tribune. No more! The most recent round of layoffs is aimed at reducing expenses to put the paper back in the black so it can help Tribne emerge from bankruptcy in a Plan of Reorganization. In other words, they're trying to shrink and fire their way to profitability. Good luck with that!

This news comes directly over the fence from a senior LA Times editor who just accepted a buy-out and is leaving the paper next month.

The signs are that it's only a matter of not-that-much time for the Times. And then: KAPUT!!

Simple Blogger said...

She's a great columnist, I hope that they won't get laid off or something.