The Los Angeles Times announced Tuesday that it would lay off at least 115 people (or more than 20% of the newsroom) in one of the largest staff reductions in the history of the 142-year-old institution.
The move comes amid projections of another year of big losses for the newspaper.
The cuts were necessary because the newspaper could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year without moving toward creating a larger readership that would generate advertising and subscriptions to sustain the organization, said the newspaper's owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.
Drastic changes are needed, he said, including installing new leaders who would focus on strengthening the outlet's journalism to make it indispensable to more readers.
“Today's decision is painful for everyone, but it is imperative that we act with urgency and take steps to build a sustainable and prosperous newspaper for the next generation. We are committed to doing so,” Soon-Shiong said.
Among the editors included in the cuts were Washington bureau chief Kimbriell Kelly, deputy Washington bureau chief Nick Baumann, business editor Jeff Bercovici, book editor Boris Kachka and music editor Craig Marks. The Washington office and the photography and sports departments saw dramatic cuts, including several award-winning photographers. The video unit was hollowed out.
The reduction comes nearly six years after Soon-Shiong and his family bought The Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune from Tribune Publishing for $500 million. Soon-Shiong's purchase marked the beginning of a period of growth and hiring, reversing more than a decade of withering cuts and diminished journalistic ambition.
Under new local ownership, The Times set out to rebuild and provide robust coverage of California and the West.
But economic headwinds, which intensified when the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out more than $60 million in advertising revenue, disrupted the shift. The Times maintained its newsroom of more than 500 people until last summer, when another dramatic decline in advertising, sparked by labor unrest in Hollywood, worsened the financial picture.
“The economic reality of our organization is extremely challenging,” Chris Argentieri, the Times' president and chief operating officer, said in a memo to staff announcing the layoffs. “Despite our owner's willingness to continue investing, we must take immediate steps to improve our cash position.”
The news business has deteriorated in recent years as more consumers turn to TikTok and other social media platforms for entertainment and information. Established media outlets, including NBC News, ABC News, CNN, the Washington Post, Condé Nast and Buzzfeed News, have laid off staff over the past year. According to a recent report, more than 2,500 journalism jobs will disappear in 2023.
The Soon-Shiong family sold the San Diego newspaper in July.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong in 2018.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Tuesday's announcement follows a week of tensions between management and the newsroom over looming cuts.
Soon-Shiong expressed disappointment that the union did not work with management to come up with a plan that he said would have saved jobs. Instead, the union rejected the company's offer and focused its energy on a one-day strike on Friday, which, Soon-Shiong said during an interview, “didn't help the situation.”
More than 350 staff members – or about 90% of the journalists covered by the union – refused to work on Friday to protest the pending cuts.
In his memo, Argentieri said managers had offered a seven-day period to accept volunteers for buyouts, as long as guild leaders agreed to temporarily relax contract provisions requiring layoffs to target those with less seniority. But the union rejected the proposal.
Media Guild of the West president Matt Pearce said 94 positions filled by the guild were part of the staff reduction. Among them was the president of the Times union unit, Brian Contreras, who announced his departure on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“It's a dark day at the Los Angeles Times,” Pearce, a Times reporter, wrote in an email to members, noting that a quarter of the union's members lost their jobs. “Many departments and groups in the newsroom will be severely affected.”
Guild leaders had pressured managers to offer acquisitions. On Monday, 10 California Democrats in Congress joined the fray, calling on Soon-Shiong and Pearce to find collaborative ways to reduce the newspaper's headcount, including using buyouts.
But some members of Congress who had reached out had previously opposed legislation that could help local newspapers stay solvent, Soon-Shiong said. Laws enacted in Canada and Australia require online giants like Google and Facebook to pay news publishers when they syndicate an outlet's stories, providing a new source of revenue.
“The irony is that a free press is not free,” Soon-Shiong said.
Tuesday's action comes seven months after more than 70 staff members were laid off. Those cuts disproportionately affected journalists of color, and both sides had previously said they wanted to find a better way.
“Our newspaper owners are committed to adding talented journalists from diverse backgrounds so that our staff reflects the city we cover, in the most populous state in the country,” said the leaders of the union groups representing blacks, Latinos, Asians and the Middle East. and South Asian journalists said Tuesday in a statement. “These proposed cuts would seriously damage the incremental progress that has been made.”
The Times has historically struggled to diversify its staff to better reflect a region as diverse as California.
The union also said Soon-Shiong unfairly sought to blame the union for the layoffs.
“This staff cut is the result of years of mediocre strategy, the absence of an editor and no clear direction,” the union said in a statement. “We still believe in the Los Angeles Times and the important role it plays in a vibrant democracy. But a newspaper cannot play that role when its staff has been reduced to the bone.”
The guild contract, which was negotiated in 2019 and remains in effect, outlines a procedure that will still allow unaffected staff members to volunteer for a purchase. If that happened, some of the people notified Tuesday could be saved.
Those whose jobs were eliminated will remain on the payroll until March 25.
Although the cuts were severe, Argentieri said in his memo that initial plans were to lay off even more staff members. “After consulting with our editorial leaders and owners, the company reduced the number of employees affected,” Argentieri wrote.
Soon-Shiong expressed deep frustration with previous leadership and attempts to build the Los Angeles Times Studios to bring the newspaper's journalism to more consumers through documentaries and podcasts.
He said he recognized several months ago that former executive editor Kevin Merida, who departed this month, and several senior editors Merida named were not doing the job. Soon-Shiong said he had no plans to renew Merida's contract, which was set to expire this spring.
Merida has said he left the newspaper over disagreements with Soon-Shiong over his role as top editor, his strategy and the size of the impending layoffs. Editor-in-chief Sara Yasin resigned this week, joining another top editor, Shani Hilton, who resigned last week.
Soon-Shiong said he was increasingly dismayed by the lack of progress in readership and other decisions, such as last summer's removal of sports lists and scores from the print edition, which angered readers and sparked thousands of subscription cancellations.
“I was very angry when I found out, after the fact, that we had taken away sports results,” Soon-Shiong said.
In a statement, the owner said the losses his family has absorbed in recent years have “exceeded $100 million in operating and capital expenses.”
Soon-Shiong hinted that he has a new editor in mind, but said it was premature to make an announcement.
He also rejected the narrative that The Times was in crisis.
“We are not in crisis. We have a real plan,” she said. “We have the opportunity to take advantage of all the investment we have made and find a way to reposition [The Times] into a sustainable and prosperous newspaper for the next generation.”
