LA Times fires 115 journalists in ‘HR zoom webinar’ following union protests

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The Los Angeles Times said it was laying off 115 journalists – or more than 20% of its newsroom – the day after members of Congress warned in a letter that sweeping media layoffs could undermine democracy in a high-stakes election year.

Young journalists of color were “disproportionately affected” by the layoffs, the Los Angeles Times Guild said in a statement, with many Black, Asian American, and Latino staffers losing their jobs, despite the Soon-Shiong family’s public commitment in 2020 to diversity in the paper’s staff, which it said “has never truly reflected the region”.

Despite our owner’s willingness to continue to invest, we need to take immediate steps to improve our cash position,” Chris Argentieri, the paper’s president and COO, wrote in an email to employees on Wednesday, announcing “a significant reduction” in staff.

Ten Democratic members of Congress who represent California had written Soon-Shiong a letter on Tuesday, saying that they were “concerned about reports of potential layoffs facing the LA Times newsroom and the effect this will have on all Angelenos, the availability of essential news and the strength of our democracy at large”.

During the tumultuous years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the paper had previously avoided major layoffs despite “losses that surpassed $100m in operational and capital expenses”, Soon-Shiong told the LA Times’ media reporter.

The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced last year that it needed to lay off 240 employees, leading to a round of buyouts that saw high-profile journalists and editors depart the paper.

The original article contains 1,301 words, the summary contains 254 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

2 comments

Oh wow, that'll really help improve the quality of the journalism! /s :-(
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Los Angeles Times said it was laying off 115 journalists – or more than 20% of its newsroom – the day after members of Congress warned in a letter that sweeping media layoffs could undermine democracy in a high-stakes election year.
Young journalists of color were “disproportionately affected” by the layoffs, the Los Angeles Times Guild said in a statement, with many Black, Asian American, and Latino staffers losing their jobs, despite the Soon-Shiong family’s public commitment in 2020 to diversity in the paper’s staff, which it said “has never truly reflected the region”.
Despite our owner’s willingness to continue to invest, we need to take immediate steps to improve our cash position,” Chris Argentieri, the paper’s president and COO, wrote in an email to employees on Wednesday, announcing “a significant reduction” in staff.
Ten Democratic members of Congress who represent California had written Soon-Shiong a letter on Tuesday, saying that they were “concerned about reports of potential layoffs facing the LA Times newsroom and the effect this will have on all Angelenos, the availability of essential news and the strength of our democracy at large”.
During the tumultuous years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the paper had previously avoided major layoffs despite “losses that surpassed $100m in operational and capital expenses”, Soon-Shiong told the LA Times’ media reporter.
The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced last year that it needed to lay off 240 employees, leading to a round of buyouts that saw high-profile journalists and editors depart the paper.
The original article contains 1,301 words, the summary contains 254 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!