Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has named editorial page editor Terry Tang as the newspaper's executive editor on an interim basis.
Tang, whose appointment is effective immediately, becomes the first female editor in the newspaper's 142-year history.
Soon-Shiong rushed to name the new leader to calm a newsroom shaken by substantial layoffs, a one-day strike and the loss of three top editors in the past two weeks. Turning to Tang, a respected journalist who previously worked at the New York Times, Soon-Shiong selected a leader with whom he had already established trust.
The Times laid off about 120 journalists this week to cut costs and reduce the financial losses the Soon-Shiong family has absorbed since they acquired the organization in 2018 for $500 million. Projections showed another year of heavy losses.
Tang replaces Kevin Merida, who resigned earlier this month following disagreements with Soon-Shiong over his role as executive editor and the extent of newsroom cuts.
Tang, in an interview, said it was too early to say whether she will become permanent editor.
“The most urgent task now is to reorganize the newsroom and reset it a little bit,” Tang said. “I want to do that work immediately and for as long as it takes.”
The restructuring comes at a difficult time for the news industry, as traditional media outlets struggle against economic headwinds. The Washington Post, CNN, NBC News and NPR have laid off hundreds of journalists in the last year as print circulation, ratings and advertising revenue fall dramatically. Local media outlets have been especially affected; A recent report found that more than 2,500 journalism jobs were eliminated last year.
Soon-Shiong has remained committed to revitalizing The Times. But the newspaper's ambitious turnaround plan launched five years ago was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and last year's Hollywood strikes that significantly reduced advertising spending by major film and television studios.
Soon-Shiong and his family have covered more than $100 million in operating losses and capital expenses since the acquisition, the owner said. He has pledged to continue investing in the organization and absorbing losses.
“We are committed to important public service journalism that our community trusts as we accelerate new and novel approaches,” Soon-Shiong said Thursday in a memo to staff. “We will act decisively to attract new audiences.”
Tang, 65, has deep roots in Southern California. She was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and her family spent a few years in Japan before immigrating to Los Angeles when she was 6 years old. Her father worked in administration for Continental Airlines and the family settled near LAX in Gardena, where Tang and her sister attended. public schools.
She received her bachelor's degree in economics from Yale University and her law degree from New York University School of Law. She served as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in the early 1990s.
Early in her career, Tang worked as an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle Times and as a reporter for Seattle Weekly.
The new senior editor has led the Opinion section for nearly two years and joined The Times in 2019 as deputy op-ed editor after spending two years at the American Civil Liberties Union, where she served as publications director and editorial. Before that, she worked at the New York Times for 20 years in a variety of roles on the news and opinion side of the operation, including as deputy technology editor; metro desktop top beat editor; and co-founder of a former online platform for reader comments.
Tang, who is married with four adult children, including triplets, returned to California nearly five years ago, in part to help care for her elderly mother.
“I really love California,” Tang said. “I was away for a while, but it's really nice to come back to the place where you grew up. But Los Angeles is a very different place than when I left, so there has been a wonderful combination of discovery and, at the same time, comfort.”
The new leader will continue to oversee the editorial page, working with deputy editorial page editor Mariel Garza, who leads the editorial board; and associate opinion editor Susan Brenneman.
“I have worked with Terry in his capacity to lead LA Times Opinion for the past two years,” Soon-Shiong said. “She has consistently impressed me with her passion for the important role journalism plays in our lives and with her love for Southern California, where she grew up.”
He must now juggle a much larger portfolio in a crucial election year and ensure a separation between the Opinion section and the reporters and editors on the news side, who must maintain their neutrality on divisive political issues.
Previous executive editors, including industry titans John Carroll and Norman Pearlstine, oversaw the news and opinion pages during their respective tenures. Merida, on the other hand, wanted distance between the two divisions, so she structured his role as leader of the newsroom and studios.
Soon-Shiong has praised the Opinion section since Tang took office.
He said in the statement that she “has demonstrated tremendous leadership in her work with our Opinion team, finding ways to engage readers with the most pressing issues of the day. Under her leadership, Opinion has exemplified the critical role the voice of the LA Times plays – for our city and for the world – in bringing attention to the issues that matter most, especially for those whose voices often go unheard.”
Carla Hall, a 30-year Times veteran and editorial board member, described Tang as a smart, collaborative and hard-working editor.
“She will be thoughtful in deciding what the newspaper's mission is, and I think she will be respectful of the reporters and section editors who publish the paper,” Hall said. “She told us that she has a challenging job ahead of her which is to review the entire document and try to figure out where things need to change.”
Tang is expected to quickly name an editor-in-chief to oversee daily operations.
Your first task will be to calm a newsroom after a dizzying period of change. It must also improve relations with union members and negotiate a new labor contract to replace one that expired at the end of 2022. Union members have become restive over the past year because there has been little progress in negotiation. The terms of the old agreement remain in effect.
“Being a journalist is a greater privilege than ever,” Tang said. “There are challenges in all journalism. But even with our decreased staff numbers, we cannot let that get in the way of accomplishing our mission. The journalists who are here are magnificent. … But we have to be very smart in the way we use the resources we have.”
Tensions flared Wednesday night when union negotiators questioned management over its list of 115 people to be targeted for layoffs. Guild representatives questioned why three recent employees had been protected from cuts, according to people familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment. The managers said the three had been hired thanks to grants from charitable foundations, so they were excluded from the dismissal process.
Guild negotiators argued that the company was not following contract rules, so on Wednesday night they told the three they would be fired.
“As a result of concerns the Guild has raised about the process, the company has notified several other employees who are affected, but the parties will continue to address these issues,” Times spokeswoman Hillary Manning said.
Two other journalists were also fired Wednesday night after managers acknowledged they had made mistakes in job classification. For now, the reduction is around 120 journalists. Managers said the total could fluctuate again over a two-week period when unaffected staff members can volunteer to make a purchase.
“The decision to reduce our workforce was difficult for all of us, but we are committed to our mission as a thriving pillar of democracy,” Soon-Shiong said in the note to staff members. “A vibrant future for the LA Times, where this organization is self-sustaining and able to grow, requires new approaches to better engage with our readers and build new audiences.”
Soon-Shiong has previously expressed deep frustration with previous leadership and its focus on building out Los Angeles Times Studios with video and podcast initiatives in an effort to reach new audiences. The One LA Times Studios production, “The Last Repair Shop,” was nominated this week for the Oscar for Documentary Short Film.
Layoffs this week and in December emptied studios and video equipment. The newspaper also made big cuts in its Washington bureau; a recently launched Latino initiative, De Los; and expelled several award-winning veteran photographers.
In addition to Merida, editor-in-chief Sara Yasin resigned this week, joining another top editor, Shani Hilton, who resigned last week.
The cuts come seven months after more than 70 staff were forced to resign as the company looked to cut costs.
Despite the nearly 25% reduction in the newsroom, Tang said the newspaper cannot lose sight of its purpose.
“We have to make the LA Times the voice of this entire region and the state,” he said. “It will be a priority to maintain the importance of that voice and the stature of the LA Times. … The entire industry is going through a difficult time, but with the ownership and commitment of the Soon-Shiong family, we can survive and thrive.”
