The Los Angeles Times newsroom is eliminating 74 positions — or roughly 13% of its newsroom — executive editor Kevin Merida announced in a memo to staff Wednesday.
The layoffs are part of a restructuring prompted by “the economic climate and the unique challenges” of the news industry, Merida wrote. Hundreds of journalists across newsrooms as varied as BuzzFeed News, ABC News and NPR have lost their jobs since the start of the year.
“The restructuring stems from the same persistent economic headwinds facing news media across the country,” Merida wrote. “Collectively, we have done a vast amount of work as a company to meet the budget and revenue challenges head on. But that work will need acceleration and we will need more radical transformation in the newsroom for us to become a self-sustaining enterprise.”
Among those laid off at the Times are news editors, copy editors, audience engagement staff and audio producers, the Los Angeles Times reported. Reporting positions, however, will largely be spared.
Los Angeles Times Guild unit council chair Reed Johnson wrote in a statement Wednesday the union had been “blindsided” by the announcement. Roughly 15%, or 57 people, of the union’s membership is on the list of planned layoffs.
The union’s previous contract requires that the company give at least 30 days’ notice of layoffs so that the two sides can negotiate. The company is also required to offer voluntary buyouts before laying people off. Though the contract expired last year, its terms are still in effect until a new contract is signed.
“Management did not consult us in advance about other options for cutting costs and saving money, short of layoffs,” Johnson wrote. “We have been bargaining a new contract since September, and this was never hinted at during bargaining.”
Merida announced the layoffs nearly a month to the day after the Los Angeles Times won two Pulitzer Prizes. The paper was recognized in the Breaking News Reporting category for journalism that uncovered secretly recorded conversations among Los Angeles officials, and the Feature Photography category for photos that delved into the life of a pregnant 22-year-old woman living on the street.
The announcement also comes nearly five years to the day since billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the paper. For nearly two decades, the Times was owned first by Tribune Media Company and then Tribune Publishing, which was also briefly known as Tronc. (Tribune has since been acquired by notorious investment firm and newspaper owner Alden Global Capital.)
Under Tribune’s ownership, the Times underwent buyouts and cutbacks. In 2017, journalists at the Times announced they were unionizing in response to the cuts and ownership changes. Roughly 85% of the newsroom voted to form a union in January 2018.
Soon-Shiong’s purchase of the Times and other community papers in May 2018 for $500 million marked a return to local ownership. Many welcomed the change, and some believed his ownership would usher in greater stability.
For the most part, the Times has avoided the mass layoffs that have hit other news organizations in recent years. The paper hired more than 150 journalists under Soon-Shiong, according to the Times, and invested in new technology and office space.
However, the pandemic brought about declines in advertising revenue. In April 2020, the Times’ parent company California Times furloughed 40 employees and executed pay cuts for its senior managers. Days later, the company announced it would also shut down three of its community papers. (Those papers were later sold and reopened.)
The company later tried to lay off an additional 84 newsroom employees in May, but the union negotiated a work-sharing program with reduced hours to save those jobs.
In early 2021, media watchers speculated that Soon-Shiong might try to sell the Times. He reportedly complained about losses following the acquisition, which some estimated could amount to more than $100 million. Soon-Shiong later denied those rumors.
At a time when many corporate-owned newsrooms are instituting significant cutbacks, some journalists have wondered if a benevolent billionaire owner might offer more protection. Wednesday’s layoffs suggest that even papers owned by wealthy individuals aren’t immune to economic pressures.
In January, The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos, laid off 20 staff due to the “economic climate.” Just a few months prior, the outlet had also eliminated its weekly magazine and laid off its Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic.
