The Los Angeles Times is launching a major Web-focused initiative, creating a new editor for innovation position and more. The efforts are in part based on recommendations from an internal committee (see the Oct. 13 Online Publishing Update for more).

The L.A. Times reported yesterday:

“The Spring Street committee, named after the Times' downtown address, began its work in October and produced a scathing report that has been seen by only a few of the newspapers top editors and executives. ‘To put it bluntly,’ the seven-page report found, ‘as a news organization, we are not web-savvy. If anything, we are web-stupid.’”

“Among the impediments the group cited or implied as stalling growth at latimes.com:

· Lack of assertive leadership and adequate focus on the website, both inside The Times and at the paper's parent, Tribune Co.

· Understaffing. Latimes.com employs about 18 "talented and dedicated" editorial employees, only a fraction of the 200 employees at the Washington Post's website and the 50 employed by the New York Times' site.

· "Creaky" technology that has made it impossible for latimes.com to host live chats between readers and journalists and to let readers customize stock tables or weather reports.

· Failure to integrate the newspaper's large news staff into operations at the web, contributing to delays in posting breaking news.”

The L.A. Times will also use 2007 to start redesigning the print edition and launch hyper-local news projects.

But some staffers are apparently unsure they can pull off the initiative without a major increase in resources, Editor & Publisher reported. Resources may continue to be tight until the Tribune Co., which owns the L.A. Times, accepts a purchase bid or otherwise completes a reorganization.

In a letter to Poynter.org's Romenesko, Phillip Day asked, "Does the managment at the Times or the journalists who apparently helped spearhead this plan have any evidence that the revenue generated from this exercise will even offset the money put into it? If journalists are to consider the website as the the primary vehicle for delivering news, as Editor James E. O'Shea said they should, what will be the paper's primary vehicle for delivering revenue?"