The Los Angeles Times has gone through painful staff cuts before, but the year-end buyout of up to 50 staffers this week represents a staggering loss to its editorial brain trust. The departures include five bureau chiefs, from New York to San Diego, along with longtime fashion critic Booth Moore, columnist Sandy Banks, veteran food critic S. Irene Virbila and writers in medical, environmental and Op-Ed sections.
“I don’t see how coverage could remain exactly the same given the unique perspective each person brings to their job,” an insider at the Tribune-owned newspaper told TheWrap. “But the L.A. Times will continue to cover the same beats, topics, regionsetc. it has been covering.”
Another insider said the paper has quietly discontinued its work with Metpro, a Tribune program aimed at mentoring and eventually hiring journalists from underrepresented communities, though an L.A .Times spokesperson said the program has active members in the building and was still recruiting candidates for 2016.
In recent years, the paper has lost such well-read writers as Patrick Goldstein, John Horn and Geoff Boucher, as well as entertainment editor Sallie Hofmeister. This week’s buyouts have also claimed TV editor Martin Miller, style editor Susan Denley and Column One editor Kari Howard. The departing bureau chiefs were from New York, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas and London.
On Wednesday, the newsroom was wracked with sadness over departing colleagues and uncertainty about how the paper would continue to provide comprehensive coverage of the country’s second-largest city, multiple employees told TheWrap and wrote in private Facebook posts.
“The work is being redistributed and the editors are hustling to fill open positions,” the insider said of the staff crisis, adding that many open positions will be filled with promotions, reassignments and new hires.
While crucial roles like bureau chief positions will be replaced in good faith, existing workflow for editors will become a game of “musical chairs,” according to another individual.
Increasingly, one insider said, the diminished ranks of ink-and-paper editorial staffers are expected to take their cues from the digital team, which is focusing on video, audience engagement and even virtual reality (a storytelling platform the New York Times just dipped a toe in).
The transition to a digital focus is widespread throughout the industry as revenues from print advertising and circulation continue to drop. “Most papers have made some good progress in better digital reports and revenue streams,” Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds told TheWrap.
“There was a time when the industry as a whole was hopeful that losses would level out,” he added. “That hasn’t really been the case.”
Itay Hod contributed to this report.