Los Angeles Times Guts More Than 100 Jobs In Massive Layoffs

In a move that guts one of the country’s oldest and most widely circulated newspapers, The Los Angeles Times announced Tuesday that it’s laying off at least 115 members of its staff, or about 20% of its newsroom.

It’s one of the biggest staff reductions in the 142-year-old Southern California institution’s history, the Times said. Though it’s widely regarded as one of the state’s top news outlets, its billionaire owner said it was bleeding as much as $40 million a year due to a crumbling advertising market.

The cuts include 94 members of the Los Angeles Times Guild, or about one quarter of the paper’s unionized staff.

“Slashing a quarter of the newsroom is devastating by any measure — to our members and their families, to our morale, to the quality of our journalism, to the bond with out audience, and to the communities that depend on our work,” the guild said in a statement.

Tuesday’s cuts, the guild noted, follow the elimination of 74 newsroom jobs in July.

Among the layoffs are staffers based in Washington, D.C., including Kimbriell Kelly, who was the first person of color and the second woman to head up the D.C. bureau. Management also laid off huge swaths of the paper’s photography, video and sports desk staffs.

Owner and biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong said he had no choice in the matter.

“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,” he said in a memo. The paper’s cuts over the last year have been the first under Soon-Shiong, who bought the Times from Tribune Publishing in 2018.

But the guild reprimanded management for not offering any buyouts, in which employees