This weekend, L.A. Times writer Stephanie Simon, lived the Newsday dream and got Rupert Murdoch as a boss. The national reporter is leaving Sam Zell's fun factory Tribune Co. for the Wall Street Journal. Simon's decision is just one of the many depressing departures from the L.A. Times. After the jump, a few discouraging memos from her fellow ship-jumpers. [via LA Observed]

Not after have such a close up look at such a dedicated group of people who continue to survive the incredible odds that keep jumping in their way.

The value in this "product" is produced right here, in the newsroom. It's the reporters, editors, photographers, researchers, librarians, artists and all the others who bring value to this paper and make it one of the best in the country. And that's in spite of the turmoil foisted upon us for the last several years. It's not the flash, not the investment bankers, or wall street or some yahoo sitting in a corporate office. People buy and read this newspaper for the news, the content that is created and distributed each and every day in whatever medium. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot and screw 'em.

Subject: going down the road feelin'... ...well, feeling a lot of things. Not all should be shared. Words fail. ...You're the toughest staff employed by any publication anywhere. If there's any justice in this business, things will get better.