L.A Times: A Defining Moment

20 September 2006 |permalink | email article

A Tribune Co. board meeting today in Chicago could decide the editorial fate of the Los Angeles Times, one of the nation’s major papers. NPR’s David Folkenflick asked the right question: can top-flight newspapers owned by publicly traded companies serve both investors and the public?

Tribune CEO Dennis FitzSimmons, expected to deliver on a directive from the board on the financial future of the company, answers in the affirmative. But rich and powerful Angelenos, pushing for the sale of the Times and a return to local ownership, think not.

John Carroll, named editor of the Times after the paper, part of Times Mirror, was sold by the founding Chandler family to the Tribune for $5.9 billion in 2000, left a little more than a year ago in protest over 200 staff cuts since 2001.

Less than a month ago, the Tribune company’s top newspaper executive, Scott Smith, delivered its largest newspaper another staggering blow: eliminate $10 million in cost before year’s end and pare back from 930 journalists to about 800.

Dean Baquet, who succeeded Carroll and won a Pulitzer Prize at the Chicago Tribune, and publisher Jeffrey Johnson, a former Tribune executive, balked at the order, saying the paper has already made severe staff cuts. Hundred of outraged Times reporters have signed petitions supporting their leadership.

Potentially risking their employment at the Times, Baquet and Johnson have stood firm. But the vice chairman of a corporation which hold’s 6% of Tribune’s stock told Folkenflick that “the current situation with the local management of the Times saying ‘no’ to their bosses is not sustainable.”

It is hard to dispute the assessment of journalist Marc Cooper: “This is a battle of titanic proportions for journalists and the future of journalism.” But whether such rank insubordination by Baquet and Johnson will be papered over is by no means certain.

One published report, mentioned in LAObserved today, says three of Baquet’s top aides will resign if he is fired. (The Times in today’s edition said publisher Johnson offered an olive branch that the newspaper would work with Tribune Co. to improve the company’s performance but he had not altered his views on the cuts.)

The Times currently enjoys a profit margin of about 20% on revenues exceeding a billion dollars a year. That’s lower than the Chicago Tribune but higher than many metro papers. The rumor is the Chicago mother ship wants 5% to 7% more.

Wall Street is down on newspaper stocks, one reason for Tribune Co. panic. Last Friday, Tribune shares were at $30.97, down nearly 38% since the beginning of 2003, when FitzSimmons took over. At the end of the day, it’s unfortunately always about corporate profits, not journalism.

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