LA Weekly, which in October was sold to mystery buyer group Semanal Media, LLC, has been hit Wednesday with layoffs so devastating that editor Mara Shalhoup likened it to the Red Wedding on “Game of Thrones.”
“We were expecting there to be some pain with the sale of @LAWeekly. But we weren’t expecting the Red Wedding. That’s how deep the cuts are,” Shalhoup said in a Twitter thread Wednesday afternoon. Another now-former LA Weekly editor separately confirmed the layoffs to TheWrap.
Shalhoup said that her “dream team” has been “eviscerated,” and that nine of 13 editorial staffers are gone, including all five editors–including music editor Andy Hermann, arts and culture editor Gwynedd Stuart, managing editor Drew Tewksbury and food editor Katherine Spiers– and all but one staff writer.