‘A dark day’; LA Times employees react to massive layoffs, say 'feeling absolutely crushed’
In a statement, Matt Pearce, president of the Media Guild of the West, which represents the Los Angeles Times’ union, termed Tuesday as “dark day.”
In one of the largest staff reductions in its 143-year history, The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday announced that it would be laying off at least 115 workers, or more than 20 per cent of the newsroom.
The decision comes days after the LA Times Guild walked off the job to stage the protest against impending layoffs amid financial crisis.
In a statement, Matt Pearce, president of the Media Guild of the West, which represents the Times’ union, termed Tuesday as “dark day.” He stated around 94 union members would be let go.
As per the LA Times owner, the publication is expected to incur significant losses for another year. The latest job cuts follow the elimination of over 70 positions in June of last year, or roughly 13% of the staff.
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Were job cuts at LA Times necessary?
The paper's owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, stated that the step was needed because the publication could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million annually without taking steps to increase readership, which would bring in advertising and subscription revenue to keep the company afloat.
He indicated that drastic measures were required as to appoint new executives who would concentrate on enhancing the outlet's journalism in order to make it vital 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.
On Monday, ten members of Congress representing California also wrote to Soon-Shiong, expressing their fear that his proposed layoffs would seriously affect "the availability of essential news and the strength of our democracy at large."
Meanwhile, Hillary Manning, the paper's spokesperson, told The New York Times that the tabloid has previously urged those politicians for assistance.
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Young journalists of color ‘disproportionately affected’ by layoffs
Despite the Soon-Shiong family's public pledge in 2020 to promote diversity in the paper's staff, many Black, Asian American, and Latino staff members lost their jobs, according to a statement from the Los Angeles Times Guild, which stated that young journalists of color were “disproportionately affected” by the layoffs.
Calling it a “devastating” move, the guild chastised the authorities for not offering any buyouts, a condition when employees given an option to leave the firm for an agreed amount.
“In the 2019 contract that The Los Angeles Times’s lawyers negotiated, management can offer buyouts on any day and at any time ― a far more humane way to make cuts during a fiscal crisis of the company’s own making,” the guild said in its statement. “Instead, The Times chose long-planned mass layoffs via webinar in which staff members weren’t allowed so much as a question.”
Sacked LA Times employees lambast ‘poorly-managed process’
Shortly after the announcement, various editorial, columnists, writers, and social media creators took to social media to confirm that they had departed the outlet. The slammed slammed the "chaotic and poorly-managed process."
The newspaper's deputy DC bureau head, Nick Baumann, and Pulitzer Prize-winning DC bureau chief Kimbriell Kelly were among the journalists sacked on Wednesday. They had received notice of their layoffs on Tuesday, the day of the New Hampshire primary voting.
