At 1:48 pm, Hillel Aron, one of the few LA Weekly editorial staffers not laid off last week by the newspaper’s mysterious news owners, Semanal LLC, issued a statement on his personal FB page announcing that he had accepted an offer to serve as the newspaper’s “interim editor-in-chief.” The post arrived less than two hours after a funeral/boycott protest took place outside the LA Weekly‘s offices in Culver City. Aron’s note details some important conditions he says he laid out before accepting the job: rehiring a couple of laid-off staffers, re-instating the labor union representing newsroom employees, and paying freelance contributors for their work.

Pretty decent start to the day! That said, the key word in his title is probably “interim.” [Update: In a subsequent comment on Facebook, Aron clarified that being named “interim” editor was his idea.] Whatever your position on LA Weekly and its future, his post is worth a careful read. Good luck, Hillel!

