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2006-09-16 Home Front: Culture Wars
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NYT: El Lay Times Editor Openly Defies Owners Call for Job Cuts
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The editor of The Los Angeles Times appears to be in a showdown with the papers owner, the Tribune Company, over job cuts in the newsroom. In a highly unusual move, Dean P. Baquet, who was named editor last year, was quoted yesterday in his own newspaper as saying he was defying the papers corporate parent in Chicago and would not make the cuts it requested.
The papers publisher, Jeffrey M. Johnson, said he agreed with Mr. Baquet. Newspapers cant cut their way into the future, he told the paper.
The number of jobs at stake is unclear but the paper, the fourth largest in the country, has eliminated more than 200 positions over the last five years from an editorial staff that now numbers about 940. I am not averse to making cuts, Mr. Baquet told the paper. But you can go too far, and I dont plan to do that.
The paper reported that Scott C. Smith, president of the Tribune Publishing division, had asked the papers executives to come up with a plan for trimming their budgets, but when Mr. Smith visited Los Angeles late last month, they had produced no such plan.
Mr. Baquet made his opposition to further cuts clear and said there was no need for further discussion, the paper reported.
Continued from Page 5
A spokesman for Mr. Baquet and Mr. Johnson said they would have no further comment.
Mr. Smith said in a statement: In this rapidly changing media environment, we are all working together to best serve our communities, customers and shareholders.
It is rare for an editor to go public with a position on internal budget battles and for the editors own newspaper to report on it. The decision by The Los Angeles Times to take its battle against Tribune public may signal that Mr. Baquet is trying to rally support on the papers behalf, at a time when Tribune is in turmoil and some local businessmen have expressed interest in buying the paper.
An editor at the paper said the article was prompted by a letter on Tuesday from 20 civic leaders, who called on Tribune to put more money into the paper or consider selling it. A Tribune spokesman said the company would respond to the letter in the near future.
The showdown is a dramatic example of a long-simmering conflict between many newsrooms and boardrooms around the country as newspapers face an industrywide economic slump and continued demands by Wall Street for improved financial results.
The stock prices of most public newspaper companies have been flagging for about two years, yet many of their publications remain profitable. The Los Angeles Times reported that its operating profit margin was 20 percent, higher than that of the average Fortune 500 company.
Many papers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as other Tribune properties among them Newsday, The Sun of Baltimore and The Hartford Courant have announced buyouts and job cuts over the last year. Newspaper costs, particularly for newsprint and personnel, are outstripping revenues and the Internet is siphoning off readers and advertisers.
The Belo Corporation announced yesterday that 111 newsroom employees at The Dallas Morning News had taken buyout offers, leaving 450 editorial employees to retrench and focus mainly on local news. Last month, David Black, whose Black Press is the new owner of The Akron Beacon Journal, laid off 40 editorial employees, about 25 percent of the newsroom staff.
At The Los Angeles Times, circulation has been falling from its peak of 1.2 million in 1990. For the six months that ended in March, it was 851,500, down 5.4 percent from the period a year ago. It was the biggest drop among the top 10 dailies and more than twice the industry average.
Tribune has been in particular turmoil because of a conflict in recent months with the Chandler family, its largest shareholder, over management of the company, which includes 11 daily newspapers and 25 broadcast television stations. The Chandlers have said the company, in which The Los Angeles Times is the biggest business, is mismanaged and have called for the company to sell its assets.
The Tribune board has defended management and has been in talks with the Chandlers to try to iron out their differences. The company said earlier this year that it would buy back $2 billion worth of company stock and make $200 million in cost cuts companywide over the next two years. It has sold some television stations, and announced a deal yesterday to sell its station in Boston, but it has not specified where it will find the bulk of those savings.
The statements in yesterdays Los Angeles Times seemed a declaration that Tribune would not find much of those savings in Los Angeles or it could lose its top executives.
John S. Carroll, the papers previous editor, quit last year in part because of pressure from Tribune to cut costs. Mr. Baquet, a close friend of Mr. Carroll and his heir apparent, had threatened to quit then, too, but stayed on.
Have I had disagreements with Chicago and others about the paper? Mr. Baquet told his paper at the time. Sure. But obviously I feel like I am in sync enough with the people who own the joint to have accepted the editors job.
Several staff members said the stance that Mr. Baquet was taking now, with support from Mr. Johnson, had given the newsroom a morale boost.
Johnson comes out from Chicago and goes native, said Steve Lopez, a columnist for the paper. Hes had a stiff drink of the Dean Baquet Kool-Aid and hes on the team.
He said many in the newsroom thought Tribune would be reluctant to fire the editor and the publisher because doing so could bring further embarrassment and spell chaos for the already troubled company. But it is not clear how the company will respond.
Tribune isnt shy or sentimental, said Martin Kaplan, associate dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. My guess is that they dont want to be backed into a corner. 
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