Los Angeles Times To Cut 150 Staffers

Radar:

The Los Angeles Times announced 150 editorial layoffs--on both print and Web, according to a memo just sent by Russ Stanton. The layoffs will be complete by Labor Day. The memo follows.

From: Stanton, Russ Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 2:05 PM To: yyeditall Subject: Newsroom job cuts

Colleagues:

You all know the paradox we find ourselves in: Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money. Add to that a poor economy, particularly for us in the California housing market, and you quickly see why a wave of cutbacks has swept through newsrooms this year from New York to Santa Ana.

We are not immune. As David Hiller mentioned in his memo last week we are embarking on another round of cost cutting. I deeply regret to report we will be reducing the size of our editorial staff, both print and Web, by a total of 150 positions, and reducing the number of pages we publish each week, by about 15%.

Read the whole story: Radar

Comments

[Meah]

The L.A. Times blames the internet for their woes? Ha! The L.A. Times is no longer our beloved newspaper that we read from cover to cover. It has been assaulted by the likes of idiots like Jonah Goldberg, etc. And the good guys were all let go. Good move Zell et al. YOU DID NOT READ the PEOPLE of LOS ANGELES. You gave us the Tribune and we did not want it. It had nothing to do with the internet.
I quit the Times some time ago just because I was so outraged with the slime that was published. It is no longer recognizable as the wonderful newspaper that I read all of my life. They ruined it and they are blaming the internet. Figures. There is no going back for the L.A. Times.

[bikerdude]

Zell and his ilk are the problem. What right thinking exec would give LA Goldberg? I quit them when they cut Robert Scheer....

[Marcee]

Where are Ron Burkle, Eli Broad and David Geffen who expressed interest in possibly buying the LA Times when the Chandler family was unloading it? Yes, The Times is indeed a shadow of its former self but cities still deserve a published, daily newspaper that one can enjoy with a morning coffee or on a long plane flight --- even with all the news resources available on the internet. Sam Zell is a foul mouthed, abrasive owner who will squeeze every last penny out of his acquisitions with no interest in stewardship or the 38 Pulitzers the LA Times was awarded in better times. The NY Observer reported, when discussing newsroom decorum, Zell told reporters that if they want to watch porn all day at their desk then go for it! As long as they're productive. He added, with a smile, "Let me know if you find any good sites." How could an owner like this nurture anything at the once great newspaper but third rate news?

[TheRebel82]

LA Times has been garbage for years now.

[rodeman]

My beloved LA Times became birdcage liner long ago

[MemphisBuffalo]

Newspapers are fading into history. This has been going on for years and this is the first of many cuts across the country.

[macintoshsauce]

As long as they don't embrace the digital age, i.e. offering a DRM-free PDF download of the entire newspaper (ads and all), I am not biting. I subscribe to The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, which have PDF versions of their newspapers for only $30 a year for each of them - inexpensive!

[SanityClaus]

This is why the cuts were inevitable, and why the paper has veered rightward and stupider lately.

Watch the new owner of the LA Times, Sam Zell, explain his philosophy of news to his employees at the Orlando Sentinel here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDy7vn7-LX4

[carlmarks]

see, not even liberals read this left-wing trash. ditto for listening to the trash over the air waves (e.g. air america)

[historyprof]

The Los Angeles Times has been becoming more and more conservative ever since the Chandler family sold out to the Tribune company. Liberals like myself have cancelled our subscriptions because that formerly great paper is becoming another conservative mouthpiece for the warmongers in Washington.

[LibRS]

Gee. All us neocons think they are far left. Guess they are in a no win situation uh?

[larry278]

Is it true that the JOHNSON FAMILY DAILY BLUTE is also going to use a smaller staff for its print & web eds? The JFDB uses prison labor for its operations. Prisons are over crowded. The JFDB never had any advertising; therefore it won't have to deal with the loss of ads.

[ProfessorDuh]

All the real reporting in this country is done by newspapers. As they die, what will be left is "reporting" like that found on Fox News: nothing but cheap gossip and lying propaganda. And God help the nation we'll have then.

[blueshield]

Too right, too late. Meanwhile Limblah makes record money. A diet for mental obesity. Even HuffPo is far from immune. Reminds me that when the dictators (fascist or communist the same) come to power with roaring crowds behind them, they purge the press and intellectuals first.

[ProfessorDuh]

Exactly. The assault on real journalism in this country is part of a larger Republican fascist assault on fact and reason itself, with Rapture loony toons ranting away while the White House forces government scientists to lie and Fox News reports that Abraham Lincoln debated Frederick Douglass. If you can eliminate fact and reason, history and science, you can get the masses to swallow whatever monstrous, murderous lie you'd care to sell them.

[DesertLight]

Keep the bait VB. I am not biting!

[DesertLight]

My advice: Take another hard turn to the left. The scratch your head.

[VolvoBirkenstock]

DesertLight
I hadn't realized that you were the leading authority here on who is and who isn't a Christian.
When you have spent half the time I have in the pulpit perhaps then you could offer a more sober opinion.
Outside of a personal attack, what was your point?
posted 07/02/2008 at 18:12:21

Minister, heal thyself.

Bet you enjoy the "laying on of hands."