CAMARILLO : Daily News Closes Bureau, Cuts Staff

Six months after opening a bureau in Camarillo, the Los Angeles Daily News has closed the office, laying off a reporter and a photographer and dispersing the remaining staff to other bureaus, a Los Angeles Newspaper Guild official said.

Although Daily News officials refused to comment on the staff reductions or the closing of the Camarillo office, the Woodland Hills-based newspaper published a report Thursday saying it was laying off 10 employees as a cost-cutting move.

Six of the employees--including the two who were laid off from the Camarillo office--were editorial staff, said Jim Smith, administrative officer for the Los Angeles Newspaper Guild.

A spokesman for the company that owns the building in the 400 block of Arneill Road where the Daily News was located said newspaper officials had notified him that they were moving.

“It was a surprise to us,” said Tim Wolfe, chief financial officer of M. F. Daily Investment Co. He said the company’s lease on the 1,100-square-foot office is still in effect.

When the Daily News opened its Camarillo bureau in November, it launched a new section--called the Ventura County Daily News--that wraps around the newspaper’s main sections. It promised coverage of western Ventura County. As of Monday, the newspaper was still publishing the Ventura County section.