 | | | Los Angeles Times to Launch New 'Tech Times' Weekly Section | LOS ANGELES, October 11, 2000 -- The Los Angeles Times will launch on Oct. 19 a new weekly personal technology section, called Tech Times, that will feature innovative consumer-oriented coverage of electronics, home and entertainment technology, personal computing, telecommunications, the Internet, and computer and video games. The stand-alone section will appear Thursdays.
Tech Times, developed by The Times' Business staff, will include the popular e-Review, Gamers Corner and 411 columns, as well as other content currently featured in the Thursday Business section's The Cutting Edge: Focus on Personal Technology.
Tech Times will also feature columns by some of the top technology and Internet writers in the nation, including Times' personal technology columnist David Wilson, formerly of the San Jose Mercury News; syndicated columnist Larry Magid, whose reports appear twice weekly in The Times; and Jim Heid, contributing editor at Macworld magazine.
"Southern California is ground zero in the convergence of technology and entertainment and the nation's second-largest personal technology market. Tech Times' crisp, edgy style will reflect the independence and sophistication of this growing market," said Bill Sing, Times' Business section editor. "We'll also be developing several innovative ways for readers to engage the newspaper through the very technology about which we'll be reporting."
In Southern California, consumers annually spend more than $1.3 billion on computer hardware and software and another $1.4 billion on consumer electronics including televisions and video recorders. More than half of the region's 3.4 million adult Internet users are active Web shoppers.
Features appearing in the print version of Tech Times will be incorporated into a new section of The Times' Web site, latimes.com/tech. The site will include stories from The Cutting Edge as well as other major technology related articles appearing throughout the print edition of The Times. The site will be updated throughout the day with breaking technology news stories.
"We want Tech Times to be a place where technophiles and technophobes can feel comfortable," said Aaron Curtiss, Tech Times editor. "We want to be a place where people who want to rip apart their PC box and upgrade their motherboard can feel comfortable that we know what we're talking about. We also want to be a place where the family who's just bought their first PC can decide which software titles to install for their eight-year-old.
"With hundreds of personal technology sites, the Internet can be an overwhelming source of information, and researching traditional technology publications can be time-consuming," Curtiss said. "Tech Times distills the latest consumer tech news from The Times and some of the industry's most trusted magazines and delivers it neatly to our readers - in print and online - not just once or twice a month, but every week."
Regular features appearing in the new section include:
eBriefing - Consumer and personal technology news briefs
Linking - A consumer look at telecommunications and other communications tools
@Home - Technology for the home including "smart" devices
Your Internet Guide - A roundup of notable Web sites and guide to upcoming Internet events and programs
Family Tech - Advice and recommendations on technology for the entire family
Money Tech - How to use technology to improve your finances
Fun Zone - The hottest gaming and entertainment products
Do It - How to do it yourself with technology
FAQ - Answers to consumers' tech questions
Tip of the Week - Consumer alerts on everything from the latest viruses to product upgrades
The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, has won 24 Pulitzer Prizes and is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country. It publishes four daily regional editions - covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Fernando Valley, and Orange and Ventura counties - as well as a National Edition.
Latimes.com, a Tribune Interactive Company, is a leading source of national and international news and the best source of online news and information for and about Southern California. Latimes.com has more than 50,000 content pages and some portion of the site is updated every two minutes, making it one of the most comprehensive news sites on the World Wide Web. In addition, users have access to a million stories from past issues of The Times available in the latimes.com archives. | |