Local Papers Say No on Measure B

LOS ANGELES—In what can only be seen as a sweep of the local print media, four Los Angeles-area newspapers published No on Measure B endorsements today, including the city's leading paper, the Los Angeles Times. In addition to the Times, the Daily News also came out against passage of the mandatory condom initiative that is being sponsored solely by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, as did the Daily News' sister papers, the Daily Breeze and the Long Beach Press-Telegram, in separately published but identical endorsements. The Times subhead encapsulated its opinion of the measure: "Though it is well intentioned, requiring the use of condoms in adult movies is likely to stymie L.A. County government and bring little benefit to performers." The Daily News, Daily Breeze and Press-Telegram summarized their view of the measure thusly: "Measure to force condoms in porn films is redundant and could harm an important local industry." The Times is of course a part of the Tribune Media Group. The other papers are part of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which also includes the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, San Bernardino Sun, Redlands Daily Facts, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News. In terms of the reach of the papers that came out against Measure B today, the Times currently has a daily circulation of just over 1.2 million. According to the Los Angeles Newspaper Group website, the Daily News has daily readership of 441,000, the Press-Telegram 236,000 and the Daily Breeze has 247,000. Online viewership adds many millions of eyeballs per month to those numbers.