Has the Daily News Become the Recycler?

Among L.A. Observed's daily reports of newspaper triage comes word that the Los Angeles Daily News is one of several papers belonging to the Los Angeles Newspaper Group whose newsrooms have been ordered to play without pay for an entire week. Just how the news is going to appear on its pages (paper and Web) might be gleaned by today's inclusion of a "breaking" online story about Roman Polanski's legal battles. If the piece's headline,  "Polanski's bid to dismiss rape case tied to film," sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it first ran January 19.

The nearly 1100-word feature, attributed to "Daily News Wire Services," was written by the Associated Press' veteran court reporter, Linda Deutsch, and today appeared with an "Updated" tag. However, the AP's January 19 copy and today's Daily News version seem identical. In fact, the latter still refers to a then-upcoming -- but eventually postponed -- January 21 Superior Court hearing "that is already drawing intense interest . . ."

When its newsroom takes its mandatory unpaid vacation, the Daily News will undoubtedly still come in handy -- if you want to predict who won the presidential election, or settle the outcome of the Rose Bowl.