The Big Lead

Los Angeles' paper of record loses veteran Los Angeles Angels writer

By J.P. Hoornstra

Feb 20, 2018; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General overall view of newspaper rack outside of Times Mirror Square and the Los Angeles Times building. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (not pictured) has purchased the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune for $500 million plus $90m in pension liabilities from Tronc Inc.
Feb 20, 2018; Los Angeles, CA, USA; General overall view of newspaper rack outside of Times Mirror Square and the Los Angeles Times building. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (not pictured) has purchased the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune for $500 million plus $90m in pension liabilities from Tronc Inc. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
facebooktwitter

The Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Angels have a funny thing in common: employees of both Southern California institutions go to work in a city other than Los Angeles.

The Times (based in El Segundo) have long employed a veteran scribe with more institutional knowledge about the Angels (based in Anaheim) than any active writer. That changed Wednesday, Mike DiGiovanna announced in a post to his Twitter/X account that he was accepting a buyout from the newspaper after 41 years.

DiGiovanna, 62, focused the majority of his coverage over the last several years on the Dodgers, after leaving his post on the traveling Angels beat. The Times most recently replaced him with Sarah Valenzuela, but she was let go in a round of layoffs in early 2024.

The Angels, who play in MLB's second-largest media market, have only had two full-time traveling beat writers with the team since. DiGiovanna has covered nearly half of the team's 64 seasons of existence. Yet the Times did not even staff Angels home games in 2024.

DiGiovanna wasn't scheduled to cover the Angels this season, though he did file two bylines from the team's spring training camp this month. Along with Helene Elliott, who lent her expertise to Angels coverage as a columnist before accepting a buyout from the Times last year, Angels fans could always count on an experienced perspective from the paper.

Now that the Angels are coming off a franchise-worst 99-loss season, and have seen star Shohei Ohtani bolt for the Dodgers in free agency, their fans will have fewer scribes on the ground covering the team than at any point since the team won the 2002 World Series — if not ever. And that's a shame.

MORE TOP STORIES from The Big Lead
NBA: LeBron is locked in on defense
NFL: Pre-Combine mock draft 
NFL: Where will Matthew Stafford land?
CFB: New Playoff proposals likely to make things worse 

Home/Sports Media