Top L-A Times Editor Plans Departure

Norman Pearlstine

Los Angeles Times Executive Editor Norman Pearlstine announced that he would soon step down and that the paper was launching a search for a new top editor who could chart a digital future and unite a newsroom that has been torn by controversies.

Pearlstine, who celebrated his 78th birthday over the weekend, made the announcement Monday morning during a meeting with top editors and in a note to staff members.

“It has been an honor to serve as your executive editor since Patrick and Michele Soon-Shiong acquired the Los Angeles Times in June of 2018,” Pearlstine wrote. “Now, we have agreed that it’s time to begin an open search for my successor.”

The search for a respected journalist to lead one of the country’s largest newspapers is expected to take several months, according to the company. Pearlstine said he agreed to stay on until Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong identifies a successor who can amplify the journalism produced by the 542-person newsroom, push further into video storytelling and other digital distribution platforms to attract more digital subscribers and return the paper to profitability.

In his nearly two and a half years at the top, Pearlstine sought to stabilize a newsroom that had been battered by years of layoffs, cost-cutting and mismanagement under its former owner, Tribune Publishing, which also called itself Tronc. Pearlstine led a dramatic hiring spree, replenishing the paper’s beleaguered ranks, recruiting top editors and working to improve technology used to generate a larger audience for its journalism.