Last week the staff of the LA Times held a one day walkout to protest looming staff cuts. The walkout came after the paper’s executive editor Kevin Merida announced he was leaving. Since then, two more managing editors have quit.
Los Angeles Times Managing Editor Sara Yasin resigned Monday amid the turmoil gripping the newsroom in advance of deep staff cuts that are looming.
Yasin’s departure comes a little more than a week after Executive Editor Kevin Merida abruptly left, citing differences with the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. The owner has ordered extensive staff cuts to trim the tens of millions of dollars in losses that he and his family have absorbed since buying The Times nearly six years ago.
Another top editor, Shani Hilton, stepped down last week, bringing to three the number of top editors who have exited during a stormy period at The Times. Merida and Hilton were The Times’ two highest-ranking Black editors.
On top of the exits by leadership, the Times received a letter today signed by 10 Members of Congress:
The letter, addressed to Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and Media Guild of the West President Matt Pearce, stressed the value of news outlets and preserving democracy.
“The LA Times is an irreplaceable source for our constituents, and we commend the dedication of the journalists that have made the outlet a linchpin of information and expert opinion for our community,” according to the letter, obtained by POLITICO and signed by 10 lawmakers representing the Los Angeles area.
I haven’t seen a copy of the letter but the LA Times indicates the signatories were Democrats including Ted Lieu and Adam Schiff. It’s not hard to imagine why California Dems would be worried about something happening to the LA Times as the paper has been a reliably left-leaning outlet for years. They are basically putting pressure on the paper’s billionaire owner to keep shelling out millions every year to cover the progressive outlet’s losses.
The Times is on track to lose between $30 and $40 million this year. Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has been writing check to cover these kinds of losses every year since he bought the paper in 2018. Reportedly his wife is sick of it and he’s now looking to limit the damage by cutting around 100 staffers. That won’t be enough to balance the paper’s budget but it will get it closer.
When Dr. Soon-Shiong bought the paper in 2018, The Los Angeles Times reported that its newsroom included about 400 people, with roughly 138,000 digital subscribers. Journalists, who had been beleaguered by years of corporate infighting and cost cutting, welcomed a wealthy owner who said he was committed to investing. Over the course of two years, about 150 new journalists were hired, and the paper reinvested in coverage of foreign news and expanded its digital presence.
But in June, The Times shed 74 newsroom roles, or about 13 percent of its work force, in the first major cuts under Dr. Soon-Shiong’s ownership. Losing an additional 20 percent of the newsroom would return it to roughly the same staffing levels as when Dr. Soon-Shiong bought the company.
It’s not just the constant losses that are creating tension at the paper. Soon-Shiong’s adult daughter has apparently been pushing the Times to take a more openly progressive stance on issues such as the paper’s coverage of Israel. Her interference may have had something to do with the executive editor’s decision to leave after less than three years on the job.
I don’t have any inside information but my own guess is that the owner is going to move forward with layoffs simply because of the amount of money involved. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how the union responds to the bad news when it finally comes.