As the Los Angeles Times declines, a ‘superbloom’ of new outlets emerges
For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.
Just over two years ago, the Los Angeles Times had more than 500 journalists in its newsroom. Now, that figure is closer to 300, according to its newsroom directory — a 40% decline.
The paper, which had survived the pandemic without layoffs, has spent the past few years wracked by rounds of job cuts, buyouts and resignations. It is now smaller than it was in 2018, when billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the paper.
Soon-Shiong himself has become a controversial figure after years of receiving praise for buying the paper and growing its staff. While the first rounds of cuts predate Soon-Shiong’s contentious decision to stop the editorial board from endorsing Democratic candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election, his actions since have driven multiple high-profile resignations, and many blame him for the turmoil at the paper.
Amid the tumult, outsiders are sensing opportunity. Five news initiatives have popped up in the region in as many months. A sixth is expected to launch this spring. The new outlets seek to both fill gaps in coverage that the Times’ decline has created, as well as those that have always existed in an area as large and diverse as Los Angeles.
“It's a vast metropolitan area,” said Karin Klein, the inaugural editor of L.A. Reported, a digital nonprofit that launched Jan. 18. Klein had previously worked at the Times before resigning after the endorsement debacle. “The LA Times is doing some terrific work — especially some terrific investigative work — but it's not the paper it used to be, and nobody would say that it's the paper it used to be. It doesn't cover nearly as much.”
Thanks to the new outlets, Los Angeles is experiencing a ‘superbloom’ at a time when news deserts are multiplying across the country. Read more about the new initiatives — which include a tabloid, a newsletter, two Substacks and a digital startup — here.
Big name makes big move
David Brooks, who has been an opinion writer at The New York Times since 2002, is leaving the paper to join The Atlantic.
Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury said in a note, “His columns have often served as a testing ground for ideas that would later reshape the national discourse.”
Fellow Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman said, “I am so sorry to hear this news. I cannot imagine reading The Times and not being able to savor one of David’s deep essays on politics, society and human connection. David and I have had a running joke all these years that we almost always end up in the same place politically, but we get there by totally different routes. We arrive at the same conclusion that our future depends on building and proliferating communities built on healthy interdependencies cemented by shared values. This news really leaves me bummed.”
Brooks is joining The Atlantic as a staff writer beginning next month. In addition to his writing, Brooks will host a new weekly video podcast that will launch in the spring.
In a note to staff, The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, writes: “David’s work –– his columns, his stories for us, and his many books –– have made him known and acclaimed around the world. He is, among other things, America’s best pop sociologist, someone with a reporter’s curiosity and a writer’s grace. He is an unparalleled diagnostician of the faults and weaknesses of governments, institutions, and social structures, as our readers know from such stories as ‘The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake,’ ‘Confessions of a Republican Exile,’ and ‘How the Ivy League Broke America.’”
The Atlantic said, “The forthcoming podcast will explore the moral, social, and philosophical underpinnings of human decency — with a particular focus on the role that institutions play in shaping communities and ideologies.”
