The Los Angeles Times, facing declining ad revenue and readership, is eliminating 74 editorial jobs, representing about 13% of the total newsroom staff. The L.A. Times Guild, an affiliate of Media Guild of the West, issued a statement that the union was “outraged” by the job cuts and “blindsided by this news.”
Staffers at the paper learned of the cut in a memo sent Wednesday from executive editor Kevin Merida, wrote wrote that the decision was “made more urgent by the economic climate and the unique challenges of our industry, the L.A. Times reported.
Going forward, the L.A. Times expects the newsroom staff to be about “500 or more,” VP of communications Hillary Manning said. “We have made the difficult decision to undergo a reorganization and eliminate certain positions within the company. The hardest decisions to make are those that impact our employees, and we are not taking this action lightly,” Manning said in a statement.
According to the L.A. Times report on the cuts, a “handful of managers” will be laid off while “reporting positions are expected to be spared but support staff will be trimmed, including editors on the news and copy desks as well as the audience engagement team.” In addition, some audio producers will also be laid off.
The cuts are first major layoffs at the Los Angeles Times since investor and entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the paper in 2018 for $500 million from Tribune Publishing (which had briefly renamed itself Tronc). As part of the deal, Soon-Shiong also bought the San Diego Union-Tribune and other titles in Southern California.
The L.A. Times Guild said that the company “must discuss alternatives to their unnecessary and short-sighted decision.”
“We are outraged by management’s announcement this morning that it plans to lay off 57 Guild members across several departments, amounting to roughly 15% of our entire newsroom membership, including several Guild leaders,” Reed Johnson, LAT Guild Unit council chair and editor of Los Angeles Times en Español, said in a statement. “This list of targeted layoffs is not final. Under our contract, management is required to bargain with the Guild over proposed layoffs. Management also so far has failed to offer buyouts to staff as is required by our contract.”
Johnson’s statement continued, “We were blindsided by this news. Management did not consult us in advance about other options for cutting costs and saving money, short of layoffs. We have been bargaining a new contract since September, and this was never hinted at during bargaining… The Guild is pushing back against this outrageous and reckless action by management.”
Other media outlets that have made layoffs in recent months include the Washington Post, CNN, Vox Media and NPR. In April, BuzzFeed announced it was shutting down BuzzFeed News, and last month Paramount said MTV News was closing shop.
According to the Times’ Manning, the economics of operating a media business “have grown increasingly challenging since the onset of the pandemic, and this is especially true for news organizations. Over the past three years, we have continued to invest while working to meet budget and revenue challenges. At the same time, we have focused our resources in areas that strengthen our ability to compete, grow revenue, reach new audiences and produce vital journalism in the public interest. We are positioning ourselves to navigate economic headwinds through this year and beyond.”
The company’s focus “remains on our long-term plans to transform the Los Angeles Times into a self-sustaining institution that will serve the community for generations to come,” Manning said.
