No Love at 'LA Times' for 'Meddling' Publisher

You have to wonder how David Hiller's going to show his face at work today.

Hiller is the publisher of The Los Angeles Times. He's also, in the view of many people who work there, "a star-struck ousider, a meddler in the newsroom who does not understand journalism or Los Angeles," according to a -- frankly, brutal -- profile in today's New York Times. It's all enough to make Pinch Sulzberger look like a beloved father figure in comparison.

What could be worse, for a newspaper executive, than being accused of not understanding your home market or journalism in general? How about being called a spineless liar?

Mr. Hiller's relationships with his top editors have been worsened by less-than-straight shooting, according to several people at the paper -- fed, they said, by his aversion to direct confrontation....

When he arrived in October 2006, Mr. Hiller said that he wanted to work with [then editor Dean] Baquet and that he did not have in mind specific numbers of jobs to cut. Some high-ranking officials at The Times say that he told them privately then that he did have specific targets, and a month into the job, he fired Mr. Baquet.

Hiller also appears to have a David Brent-ish need for attention and lack of regard for boundaries. "When The Times had a 125th birthday party, he took the microphone and sang 'Hello, Dolly' and 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' to several hundred employees," reports Richard Perez-Pena.

Oh, and he's known around the office as "the class president" or "the cheerleader."