The TIMES

Wednesday, May 31 was the day when we were invited to visit the Los Angeles Times. It was a great opportunity to tour The Times, meet and have a discussion with the editors of this newspaper. It was my first time visit of this kind so I learnt a lot from it. The tour itself was very informative, fast and not tiring. At the end of it the editors of the papers joined us and answered all te questions there were. We learnt about their budget, their reporters, readers, how they deal with the other mass media such as the Internet, TV, also how the papers are financed, what they plan for future, etc. Many of their reporters and photographers have won the Pulitzer Price, many of them are still covering the war in Iraq and Afganistan and literally risk their lives to bring the news.

The Times building is in Downtown Los Angeles, very pretty both from the outside and the inside.

The entrance hall with the globe symbolizing the entire world covered in their news........

........and the Eagle, their symbol created by the same person who created Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum.

And this is the place where the editors work. It is a looooooot of work I can tell you. A lot of reading and writing and obviously corrections.

The equipment used back in the days....

This picture became one of the symbols of the war in Iraq. It was obviously taken by one of the LA Times photographers. The mariner himself is now back at home in US. He suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and we were told he used to smoke 6 packets of cigarettes a day. The saddest thing is that the reports from a war are the most valued work for any reporter.

One of the most incredible things and my favourite was this place. It is a test kitchen where they cook different foods and taste wine from all the countries around the world and then write articles about it.

And these are the Pulitzer prizes for LA Times reporters and photographers.