More “journalists” at the once great LA Times have been cut. The paper’s circulation is shedding readers faster than Alec Baldwin sheds his hair. The Zell team has to cut and cut more.
Hint to staffers: Keep your head down and work about 10-14 extra hours a week and you migh hang on to your job.
Another 75 editorial staffers were let go at the Los Angeles Times on Monday, including numerous reporters and editors involved in arts and entertainment coverage.
The cuts included film critic Carina Chocano, whose departure leaves Hollywood’s hometown newspaper with one full-time film critic, Kenneth Turan. Chocano had been with the Times since 2004.
Times editor Russ Stanton cited the growing economic downturn as the reason for the latest round of layoffs in a memo to the staff. The Times eliminated about 130 editorial positions in July as part of a companywide downsizing effort at its beleaguered parent company, Tribune Co. Stanton’s note said Monday’s cuts represented about 10% of the newsroom staff.
In a note to staffers, newly appointed L.A. Times publisher Eddy Hartenstein wrote, “The deteriorating business climate is something that cannot be ignored.”
Scribe Veronique de Turenne confirmed her exit on the L.A. Now lifestyle blog that she had penned for the Times since February. Among the other staffers who covered aspects of the biz now exiting the Times are Lynell George, Agustin Gurza, Swati Pandey and Scott Timberg.
— Hollywood Reporter, Cynthia Littleton.
The end of elite liberal media empires and rise of citizen journalism 