Ann Marie Lipinski, who went from summer intern to editor of the Chicago Tribune, is stepping down. Why? She won't really say! Except that "this position is not the fit it once was." Which is to say, not the position it was from 2001 until crazy billionaire Sam Zell bought the Tribune Company in 2007? Maybe? "Her resignation comes two months after George De Lama, the paper's managing editor for news, announced he was leaving the Tribune after 30 years." And little more than a month after Zell announced he was trimming 500 pages of news a week from his many flailing newspapers. Meanwhile-is publisher and David Hiller out at the L.A. Times? Basically every decision he's made since arriving at the paper from Chicago has enraged the already miserable LAT staff, so we figured he'd stick around for a while longer.

LA Times publisher David Hiller, the corporate emissary the Tribune bosses in Chicago sent out to California to handle all the editor-firing, is a bit of a dork. He got all goofy and excited over the fact that the paper got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year, which convinced the jaded LAT newsroom that he is a total touristy nerd who will never really grasp the City of Angels. He manages like a pussy, mumbling inaudibly about what his long term plans and mandates are before springing the hatchet on angry editors, according to lots of anonymous interviewees in a New York Times profile today. They also say he has sent notes about individual stories to reporters (a huge no-no for a publisher), and is considering putting the paper's entire Sunday magazine section under the control of the marketing department. On top of all that, he likes to sing corny songs. Whew! A weak manager, muddling around without a strong long-term plan, trying to endear himself to his inferiors in an annoying, kind of nerdy fashion. Who does that remind you of? New York Times publisher Arthur "Pinch Pinch Pinch" Sulzberger Jr., of course! Observe this list of Sulzberger's greatest Hiller-like moments:

Los Angeles Times publisher David Hiller has started a blog! But he's said in a memo that "This is internal, just for us, so please don't share the blog content outside the company." David. Honey. Have you been to the internet? [LA Observed]