L-A Times Makes Deep Newsroom Cuts

The Los Angeles Times announced Tuesday that it was laying off at least 115 people — or more than 20% of the newsroom — marking one of the largest workforce reductions in the history of the 142-year-old institution.

The Times reports the move comes amid projections for another year of heavy losses for the newspaper.

The cuts were necessary because the paper could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year without making progress toward building higher readership that would bring in advertising and subscriptions to sustain the organization, the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said Tuesday.

Drastic changes were needed, he said, including installing new leaders who would focus on strengthening the outlet’s journalism to become indispensable to more readers.

“Today’s decision is painful for all, but it is imperative that we act urgently and take steps to build a sustainable and thriving paper for the next generation. We are committed to doing so,” Soon-Shiong said.

Senior editors were part of the purge, including Washington bureau chief Kimbriell Kelly, deputy Washington bureau chief Nick Baumann, business editor Jeff Bercovici, books editor Boris Kachka, and music editor Craig Marks. The Washington bureau, photography and sports departments saw dramatic cuts, including several award-winning photographers. The video unit was hollowed out.

The retrenchment 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 ushered in a period of growth and hiring, reversing more than a decade of withering cuts and diminished journalistic ambition.

With the new local owner, 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 erased more than $60 million in advertising revenue almost overnight, disrupted the paper’s turn-around. The paper maintained its newsroom — more than 500 people — through the pandemic until last summer when another dramatic pullback in advertising, brought on by Hollywood’s labor unrest, worsened the financial picture.

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 all shed staff during the past year. More than 2,300 journalism jobs vanished in 2023, according to a recent report.