Closing of Herald Examiner Ends Colorful Newspaper Era

The Times’ coverage of the passing of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner was commendable--thoughtful without being weepy; exhaustive without gloating (Part A, Nov. 2).

As a former Her-Ex reporter, I can confirm the paper’s feistiness and the staff’s willingness to succeed even as personnel changed too often and the Hearst Corp. continued to lose millions of dollars a year. Some thought they would never abandon their flagship where Jack Webb’s “30” was filmed and where green eyeshades were worn by editors sitting around a traditional rim well into the 1960s. Those working at the Her-Ex for the past 15 years did the very best they could with inadequate resources.

I was one of those who felt the paper would endure. Remembering a line from “Citizen Kane,” Joseph Cotten, playing the ersatz Hearst’s financial adviser, tells Orson Welles he can no longer operate his paper because it is losing a million dollars a year. Welles grins back and says, “I guess that only leaves me 137 years.”

So time has run out. Here’s to you, Her-Ex, this Rosebud’s for you.

JAY MALINOWSKI, Los Angeles