Los Angeles Times axes 115 staff members to counter financial struggles

The Los Angeles Times announced the layoff of 115 staff members on Tuesday, as part of billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s efforts to curb annual losses estimated at $30-$40 million.

The layoffs include both union members and non-union managers. According to Matt Pearce, a Times reporter and president of Media Guild West, 94 union staffers are affected, which he described as “devastating,” although it is fewer than initially anticipated a week ago.

The impact of the layoffs is expected to be felt primarily by employees with the least seniority, per the union’s contractual terms. Despite a management proposal to offer buyouts in exchange for relinquishing the seniority rule, the union rejected the offer.

Some of the staff took to social media platform X, formally known as Twitter to inform that they had been let go, including Kimbriell Kelly, the DC bureau chief, and Nick Baumann, the deputy DC bureau chief who was to lead the paper’s coverage of the 2024 presidential race.

Paper’s business editor Jeff Bercovici and Lindsay Blakely, the deputy business editor, also shared on X that they had been let go, as were several other business staffers. The music editor Craig Marks and film reporter Jen Yamato, were also laid off.

The news of layoffs follows the departure of Kevin Merida, who served as the executive editor of the paper for two and a half years. Following Merida’s exit, four editors were tasked with overseeing the newsroom, but two of them have also departed in the interim.

Constituting approximately 20% of the newsroom, these recent layoffs come on the heels of another round of cuts that saw 74 newsroom staffers let go just a few months ago.

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