Kevin Roderick at LAObserved reports that the Los Angeles Times is closing down its California section:

Publisher Eddy Hartenstein has ordered the California section killed, leaving the L.A. Times without a separate local news front for the first time since the paper’s early decades. The publisher decided to fold local news inside the front section — which will be reconfigured to downplay national and foreign news — despite what an official of the paper confirmed for me was the unanimous and vocal objections of senior editors. Advertisers were informed on Wednesday, and word began to leak on Thursday. Hartenstein reportedly planned to delay an announcement until the close of business on Friday, fearing it will play as another black eye for the Times.

The LAT’s own L.A. Now blog links to Roderick’s post. Among the reader reactions? Reader AH thinks the paper is losing the one edge it has, commenting: “If I want world news, I’ll read the NYT. The only thing the LAT offers me at all is the California section, and that’s it. I’m out.” Hear that, Eddy?