L.A. Times Eliminates TV Listings in Print Edition

It's another sign of the shrinking Times. In a note to readers in today's Calendar section, the Los Angeles Times announced that the last remnants of the Calendar section's TV listings grid will soon be history. Starting next Tuesday, Feb. 26, the grids will be no more -- only available online. (Only a TV highlights column will remain).

Writes the paper: "A searchable and printable TV listings grid, which is updated daily, may be accessed at latimes.com/tvtimes and provides readers with TV listings sorted by home ZIP code. TV highlights will continue to appear in Calendar's print editions. LATimes.com members may sign up for TV Weekly, which is delivered in the Sunday Times."

Well, there's a bit of a catch to that: According to the LA Times representative I just spoke to, the "TV Weekly" insert will be offered free to subscribers for six months -- but after that, there will be a fee for it to continue. No thanks -- I trust TV Guide Magazine much more.

I assume this means an even smaller Calendar section moving forward. Over time, the L.A. Times' TV listings have shrunk to focus just on primetime, just as the comics pages have declined. (It wasn't too long ago that the paper also still ran radio listings.)