Los Angeles Times in the 21st century
Encyclopedia
For the main article, see Los Angeles Times
.
The Los Angeles Times in the 21st century was beset in its first decade by a change in ownership, a bankruptcy, a rapid succession of editors, reductions in staff, decreases in paid circulation, the need to increase its Web presence, and a series of controversies.
of Chicago, Illinois, ending one of the final examples of a family-controlled metropolitan daily newspaper in the U.S. (The New York Times
, The Seattle Times
and others remain).
On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced its acceptance of real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell's offer to buy the Chicago Tribune
, the Los Angeles Times, and all other company assets. Zell announced that he would sell the Chicago Cubs
baseball club. He put up for sale the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet
Chicago. Until shareholder approval was received, Los Angeles billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad
had the right to submit a higher bid, in which case Zell would have received a $25 million buyout fee.
In December 2008, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy was a result of declining advertising revenue and a debt load of $12.9 billion, much of it incurred when the paper was taken private by Zell.
, former editor of the Baltimore Sun, was brought in to restore the luster of the newspaper. During his reign at the Times he eliminated more than 200 jobs, but despite an operating profit margin of 20 percent, the Tribune executives were unsatisfied with returns, and by 2005 Carroll had left the newspaper. His successor, Dean Baquet
, refused to impose the additional cutbacks mandated by the Tribune Company.
Baquet was the first African-American to hold this type of editorial position at a top-tier daily. During Baquet and Carroll's time at the paper, it won 13 Pulitzer Prize
s, more than any other paper but the New York Times. However, Baquet was removed from the editorship for not meeting the demands of the Tribune Group — as was publisher Jeffrey Johnson — and was replaced by James O'Shea of the Chicago Tribune. O'Shea himself left in January 2008 after a budget dispute with publisher David Hiller
.
The paper's content and design style was overhauled several times in attempts to increase circulation. In 2000, a major change re-organized the news sections (related news was put closer together) and changed the "Local" section to the "California" section with more extensive coverage. Another major change in 2005 saw the Sunday "Opinion" section retitled the Sunday "Current" section, with a radical change in its presentation and featured columnists. There were regular cross-promotion
s with Tribune-owned television station KTLA to bring evening-news viewers into the Times fold.
The paper reported on July 3, 2008, that it planned to cut 250 jobs by Labor day
and reduce the number of published pages by 15 percent. That included about 17 percent of the news staff, as part of the newly private media company's mandate to reduce costs. "We've tried to get ahead of all the change that's occurring in the business and get to an organization and size that will be sustainable," Hiller said.
The changes and cuts were controversial, prompting criticism from such disparate sources as a Jewish Journal commentary, an anonymously written employee blog called Tell Zell and a satirical Web site, Not the L.A. Times.
In January 2009, the Times increased its single copy price from 50 to 75 cents and eliminated the separate California/Metro section, folding it into the front section of the newspaper. The Times also announced seventy job cuts in news and editorial, or a 10 percent cut in payroll.
Some attributed the drop in circulation to the increasing availability of alternate methods of obtaining news, such as the Internet, cable TV and radio . Others believed that the drop was due to the retirement of circulation director Bert Tiffany. Still others thought the decline was a side effect of a succession of short-lived editors who were appointed by publisher Mark Willes after publisher Otis Chandler
relinquished day-to-day control in 1995. Willes, the former president of General Mills
, was criticized for his lack of understanding of the newspaper business, and was derisively referred to by reporters and editors as The Cereal Killer.
Other reasons offered for the circulation drop included an increase in the single-copy price from 25 cents to 50 cents and a rise in the proportion of readers preferring to read the online version instead of the print version. Editor Jim O'Shea, in an internal memo announcing a May 2007, mostly voluntary, reduction in force, characterized the decrease in circulation as an "industry-wide problem" which the paper had to counter by "growing rapidly on-line," "break[ing] news on the Web and explain[ing] and analyz[ing] it in our newspaper."
2004 Pulitzer Prize-winner Nancy Cleeland, who took O'Shea's buyout offer, did so because of "frustration with the paper's coverage of working people and organized labor" (the beat that earned her Pulitzer). She speculated that the paper's revenue shortfall could be reversed by expanding coverage of economic justice topics, which she believed were increasingly relevant to Southern California
; she cited the paper's attempted hiring of a "celebrity justice reporter" as an example of the wrong approach.
In early 2006, the Times closed its San Fernando Valley
printing plant, leaving press operations to the Olympic plant and to Orange County
. Also in 2006, the Times announced its circulation had fallen to 851,532, down 5.4 percent from 2005. The Times's loss of circulation was the largest of the top ten newspapers in the U.S.
Despite the circulation decline, many in the media industry lauded the newspaper's effort to decrease its reliance on "other-paid" circulation in favor of building its "individually paid" circulation base — which showed a marginal increase in a circulation audit. This distinction reflected the difference between, for example, copies distributed to hotel guests free of charge (other-paid) versus subscriptions and single-copy sales (individually-paid).
was followed by a shakeup in management of the paper's website, www.latimes.com, and a rebuke of print staffers who had assertedly "treated change as a threat."
in the preparation of a 168-page magazine about the opening of the sports arena. The magazine's editors and writers were not informed of the agreement, which breached the Chinese wall
that traditionally has separated advertising from journalistic functions at American newspapers. Publisher Mark Willes also had not prevented advertisers from pressuring reporters in other sections of the newspaper to write stories favorable to their point of view.
Michael Kinsley
was hired as the Opinion and Editorial (Op-Ed
) Editor in April 2004 to help improve the quality of the opinion pieces. His role was controversial, as he forced writers to take a more decisive stance on issues. In 2005, he created a Wikitorial
, the first Wiki
by a major news organization. Although it failed, readers could combine forces to produce their own editorial pieces. He resigned later that year.
On November 12, 2005, new Op-Ed Editor Andrés Martinez
shook things up by announcing the firing of liberal op-ed columnist Robert Scheer
and conservative editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez
, replacing the two with a more diversified lineup of regular columnists.
The Times has also come under controversy for its decision to drop the weekday edition of the Garfield
comic strip in 2005, in favor of a hipper comic strip Brevity, while retaining the Sunday edition. Garfield was dropped altogether shortly thereafter.
Following the Republican Party
's defeat in the 2006 mid-term elections, an Opinion piece published on November 19, 2006, by Joshua Muravchik
, a leading neoconservative
and a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute
, was titled BOMB IRAN. The article shocked some readers, with its hawkish comments in support of more unilateral action by the United States, this time against Iran.
On March 22, 2007, editorial page editor Andrés Martinez
resigned following an alleged scandal centering around his girlfriend's professional relationship with a Hollywood producer who had been asked to guest edit a section in the newspaper. In an open letter written upon leaving the paper, Martinez criticized the publication for allowing the Chinese Wall
between the news and editorial departments to be weakened, accusing news staffers of lobbying the opinion desk.
The Times drew fire for a last-minute story before the 2003 California recall election
alleging that gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger
groped scores of women during his movie career. Columnist Jill Stewart
wrote on the American Reporter website that the Times did not do a story on allegations that former Governor Gray Davis
had verbally and physically abused women in his office and that the Schwarzenegger story relied on a number of anonymous sources. Further, she said, four of the six alleged victims were not named. She also said that in the case of the Davis allegations, the Times decided against printing the Davis story because of its reliance on anonymous sources.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors
said that the Times lost more than 10,000 subscribers because of the negative publicity surrounding the Schwarzenegger article.
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.
Ownership
In 2000, the Times-Mirror Company, publisher of the Times, was purchased by the Tribune CompanyTribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
of Chicago, Illinois, ending one of the final examples of a family-controlled metropolitan daily newspaper in the U.S. (The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
and others remain).
On April 2, 2007, the Tribune Company announced its acceptance of real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell's offer to buy the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, the Los Angeles Times, and all other company assets. Zell announced that he would sell the Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
baseball club. He put up for sale the company's 25 percent interest in Comcast SportsNet
Comcast SportsNet
Comcast SportsNet is a group of regional sports networks in the United States primarily owned by the Comcast cable television company....
Chicago. Until shareholder approval was received, Los Angeles billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad
Eli Broad
Eli Broad is an American businessman from Detroit, Michigan who resides in Los Angeles, California.-Life and career:An only child, Broad was born in the Bronx to Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents. His father was a housepainter, his mother was a dressmaker. His family moved to Detroit when he...
had the right to submit a higher bid, in which case Zell would have received a $25 million buyout fee.
In December 2008, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection. The bankruptcy was a result of declining advertising revenue and a debt load of $12.9 billion, much of it incurred when the paper was taken private by Zell.
Editorial changes and staff reductions
John CarrollJohn Carroll (journalist)
John S. Carroll was the editor of the Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun. During his tenure the Times won 13 Pulitzer Prizes.-Early career:...
, former editor of the Baltimore Sun, was brought in to restore the luster of the newspaper. During his reign at the Times he eliminated more than 200 jobs, but despite an operating profit margin of 20 percent, the Tribune executives were unsatisfied with returns, and by 2005 Carroll had left the newspaper. His successor, Dean Baquet
Dean Baquet
Dean P. Baquet is an American journalist, who on June 2, 2011 was named to become managing editor for news operations of The New York Times effective September 6....
, refused to impose the additional cutbacks mandated by the Tribune Company.
Baquet was the first African-American to hold this type of editorial position at a top-tier daily. During Baquet and Carroll's time at the paper, it won 13 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
s, more than any other paper but the New York Times. However, Baquet was removed from the editorship for not meeting the demands of the Tribune Group — as was publisher Jeffrey Johnson — and was replaced by James O'Shea of the Chicago Tribune. O'Shea himself left in January 2008 after a budget dispute with publisher David Hiller
David Hiller
David Dean Hiller is a lawyer and former media executive for Chicago-based Tribune Company. On May 18, 2009, he was appointed president and CEO of the McCormick Foundation, a leading charitable organization with more than $1 billion in assets...
.
The paper's content and design style was overhauled several times in attempts to increase circulation. In 2000, a major change re-organized the news sections (related news was put closer together) and changed the "Local" section to the "California" section with more extensive coverage. Another major change in 2005 saw the Sunday "Opinion" section retitled the Sunday "Current" section, with a radical change in its presentation and featured columnists. There were regular cross-promotion
Cross-promotion
Cross-promotion is a form of marketing promotion where customers of one product or service are targeted with promotion of a related product. A typical example is cross-media marketing of a brand, for example Oprah Winfrey's promotion on her television show of her books, magazines and website...
s with Tribune-owned television station KTLA to bring evening-news viewers into the Times fold.
The paper reported on July 3, 2008, that it planned to cut 250 jobs by Labor day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
and reduce the number of published pages by 15 percent. That included about 17 percent of the news staff, as part of the newly private media company's mandate to reduce costs. "We've tried to get ahead of all the change that's occurring in the business and get to an organization and size that will be sustainable," Hiller said.
The changes and cuts were controversial, prompting criticism from such disparate sources as a Jewish Journal commentary, an anonymously written employee blog called Tell Zell and a satirical Web site, Not the L.A. Times.
In January 2009, the Times increased its single copy price from 50 to 75 cents and eliminated the separate California/Metro section, folding it into the front section of the newspaper. The Times also announced seventy job cuts in news and editorial, or a 10 percent cut in payroll.
Circulation
The Times's reported daily circulation in October 2010 was 600,449, down from a peak of 1.1 million.Some attributed the drop in circulation to the increasing availability of alternate methods of obtaining news, such as the Internet, cable TV and radio . Others believed that the drop was due to the retirement of circulation director Bert Tiffany. Still others thought the decline was a side effect of a succession of short-lived editors who were appointed by publisher Mark Willes after publisher Otis Chandler
Otis Chandler
Otis Chandler was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions...
relinquished day-to-day control in 1995. Willes, the former president of General Mills
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
, was criticized for his lack of understanding of the newspaper business, and was derisively referred to by reporters and editors as The Cereal Killer.
Other reasons offered for the circulation drop included an increase in the single-copy price from 25 cents to 50 cents and a rise in the proportion of readers preferring to read the online version instead of the print version. Editor Jim O'Shea, in an internal memo announcing a May 2007, mostly voluntary, reduction in force, characterized the decrease in circulation as an "industry-wide problem" which the paper had to counter by "growing rapidly on-line," "break[ing] news on the Web and explain[ing] and analyz[ing] it in our newspaper."
2004 Pulitzer Prize-winner Nancy Cleeland, who took O'Shea's buyout offer, did so because of "frustration with the paper's coverage of working people and organized labor" (the beat that earned her Pulitzer). She speculated that the paper's revenue shortfall could be reversed by expanding coverage of economic justice topics, which she believed were increasingly relevant to Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
; she cited the paper's attempted hiring of a "celebrity justice reporter" as an example of the wrong approach.
In early 2006, the Times closed its San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
printing plant, leaving press operations to the Olympic plant and to Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
. Also in 2006, the Times announced its circulation had fallen to 851,532, down 5.4 percent from 2005. The Times's loss of circulation was the largest of the top ten newspapers in the U.S.
Despite the circulation decline, many in the media industry lauded the newspaper's effort to decrease its reliance on "other-paid" circulation in favor of building its "individually paid" circulation base — which showed a marginal increase in a circulation audit. This distinction reflected the difference between, for example, copies distributed to hotel guests free of charge (other-paid) versus subscriptions and single-copy sales (individually-paid).
Internet presence
In December 2006, a team of Times reporters delivered management with a critique of the paper's online news efforts known as the Spring Street Project. The report, which condemned the Times as a "web-stupid" organization,"was followed by a shakeup in management of the paper's website, www.latimes.com, and a rebuke of print staffers who had assertedly "treated change as a threat."
Other controversies
It was revealed in 1999 that a revenue-sharing arrangement was in place between the Times and Staples CenterStaples Center
Staples Center is a multi-purpose sports arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. Opening on October 17, 1999, it is one of the major sporting facilities in the Greater Los Angeles...
in the preparation of a 168-page magazine about the opening of the sports arena. The magazine's editors and writers were not informed of the agreement, which breached the Chinese wall
Chinese wall
In business, a Chinese wall or firewall is an information barrier implemented within a firm to separate and isolate persons who make investment decisions from persons who are privy to undisclosed material information which may influence those decisions...
that traditionally has separated advertising from journalistic functions at American newspapers. Publisher Mark Willes also had not prevented advertisers from pressuring reporters in other sections of the newspaper to write stories favorable to their point of view.
Michael Kinsley
Michael Kinsley is an American political journalist, commentator, television host, and pundit. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on Crossfire...
was hired as the Opinion and Editorial (Op-Ed
Op-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
) Editor in April 2004 to help improve the quality of the opinion pieces. His role was controversial, as he forced writers to take a more decisive stance on issues. In 2005, he created a Wikitorial
Wikitorial
A wikitorial is a term coined by the Los Angeles Times to describe a traditional editorial that can be edited in the fashion of a wiki . On June 17, 2005 the Los Angeles Times wrote the first Wikitorial, entitled: War and Consequences. The new Wikitorial was about the War in Iraq...
, the first Wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
by a major news organization. Although it failed, readers could combine forces to produce their own editorial pieces. He resigned later that year.
On November 12, 2005, new Op-Ed Editor Andrés Martinez
Andrés Martinez (editor)
Andrés Martinez is the director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program at the New America Foundation. In the past, he has worked as an opinion journalist and business writer, his highest position as editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, a position from which he resigned amid...
shook things up by announcing the firing of liberal op-ed columnist Robert Scheer
Robert Scheer
Robert Scheer is an American journalist who writes a column for Truthdig which is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate in publications such as The Huffington Post and The Nation...
and conservative editorial cartoonist Michael Ramirez
Michael Ramirez
Michael Patrick Ramirez is a two-time American Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. His cartoons typically present conservative viewpoints....
, replacing the two with a more diversified lineup of regular columnists.
The Times has also come under controversy for its decision to drop the weekday edition of the Garfield
Garfield
Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
comic strip in 2005, in favor of a hipper comic strip Brevity, while retaining the Sunday edition. Garfield was dropped altogether shortly thereafter.
Following the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
's defeat in the 2006 mid-term elections, an Opinion piece published on November 19, 2006, by Joshua Muravchik
Joshua Muravchik
Joshua Muravchik is a scholar formerly at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and now a fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University....
, a leading neoconservative
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
and a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
, was titled BOMB IRAN. The article shocked some readers, with its hawkish comments in support of more unilateral action by the United States, this time against Iran.
On March 22, 2007, editorial page editor Andrés Martinez
Andrés Martinez (editor)
Andrés Martinez is the director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program at the New America Foundation. In the past, he has worked as an opinion journalist and business writer, his highest position as editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, a position from which he resigned amid...
resigned following an alleged scandal centering around his girlfriend's professional relationship with a Hollywood producer who had been asked to guest edit a section in the newspaper. In an open letter written upon leaving the paper, Martinez criticized the publication for allowing the Chinese Wall
Chinese wall
In business, a Chinese wall or firewall is an information barrier implemented within a firm to separate and isolate persons who make investment decisions from persons who are privy to undisclosed material information which may influence those decisions...
between the news and editorial departments to be weakened, accusing news staffers of lobbying the opinion desk.
The Times drew fire for a last-minute story before the 2003 California recall election
California recall election, 2003
The 2003 California gubernatorial recall election was a special election permitted under California state law. It resulted in voters replacing incumbent Democratic Governor Gray Davis with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. The recall effort spanned the latter half of 2003...
alleging that gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
groped scores of women during his movie career. Columnist Jill Stewart
Jill Stewart
Jill Stewart is the Deputy Editor of News at LA Weekly, the largest alternative weekly newspaper in the Western U.S. She directs a staff of metro reporters who specialize in Los Angeles and California news and politics...
wrote on the American Reporter website that the Times did not do a story on allegations that former Governor Gray Davis
Gray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who served as California's 37th Governor from 1999 until being recalled in 2003...
had verbally and physically abused women in his office and that the Schwarzenegger story relied on a number of anonymous sources. Further, she said, four of the six alleged victims were not named. She also said that in the case of the Davis allegations, the Times decided against printing the Davis story because of its reliance on anonymous sources.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors
American Society of Newspaper Editors
The American Society of News Editors is a membership organization for editors, producers or directors in charge of journalistic organizations or departments, deans or faculty at university journalism schools, and leaders and faculty of media-related foundations and training organizations...
said that the Times lost more than 10,000 subscribers because of the negative publicity surrounding the Schwarzenegger article.