LA Times to lay off one-fourth of newsroom staff starting this week: Union head

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Times plans to lay off 94 newsroom employees — a quarter of its newsroom staff — starting Tuesday, a number that is substantial but less than feared, the head of the journalists’ union said.

The announcement comes after the LA Times Guild resigned last Friday in protest of the pending layoffs, the newsroom’s first work stoppage in the paper’s 143-year history.

Matt Pearce, chairman of the Media Guild of the West, to which the Times union belongs, called it a “dark day”. He said the layoffs represent a quarter of the Times Guild’s total membership.

“Many departments and clusters in the newsroom will be severely affected,” Pearce said in a statement on Tuesday. “While devastating, this number is nevertheless far lower than the number of redundancies the Bargaining Committee expected last week.”

He said some of those selected by management for layoffs may be eligible for buyouts under the union contract.

Layoffs and takeovers have hit much of the news industry in the past year. The Washington Post, NPR, CNN and Vox Media are among the many companies affected.

An estimated 2,681 news industry jobs were lost through the end of November, according to the Challenger, Gray and Christmas staffing agency. That was more than the entire years 2022 and 2021.

The latest round of job cuts at the LA Times comes after more than 70 positions — about 13% of the newsroom — were eliminated last June.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire, acquired the Times in 2018 and returned it to local ownership 20 years after it was sold to Tribune Co. The purchase raised hopes after years of budget cuts, declining circulation and changes in leadership.

Earlier this month, editor-in-chief Kevin Merida abruptly left after 2.5 years in office.

Pearce said the union’s bargaining committee would meet with Times management on Wednesday to begin discussions about the layoffs as outlined in the contract.