The LAT has given up on a national print edition, and instead will work on beefing up its Web presence.

An excerpt from an NYT story:

"We've learned over the past year that most of our East Coast audience reads us on the Web," said David Garcia, a spokesman for The Los Angeles Times. He said the paper was planning to enhance its Web site, www.latimes.com, "to highlight our Washington coverage, which we believe is the best in the country."

The Times has begun an extensive cost-cutting program, most recently eliminating 85 jobs in the newsroom. Executives said that if the national edition, which was compiled by two employees, were to continue, two other people in the newsroom would have to lose their jobs; management decided to eliminate the national edition to save those two jobs, executives said.

John Arthur, assistant managing editor, said that with so many readers going to newspaper Web sites, including that of The Los Angeles Times, the paper would not be losing much by giving up the national edition.

"A lot of people go to the Web site for this stuff anyway," he said.