Los Angeles Times
Former editor of the Los Angeles Times (2000-2005), the Baltimore Sun and Lexington Herald Leader; Visiting Knight Lecturer at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center
PROFILE
John Carroll
Guest
FROM John Carroll
To the Point
Is the Newspaper Industry Stumbling? Crumbling? Newspapers are shedding staff and reducing services, just like other industries, but even if the economy picks up, they may not bounce back. Tumbling ad revenues and stockholders hungry for profit are creating a familiar scenario, but the Internet is what's making things different. Major papers in New York, Washington and Los Angeles give readers national and international perspective. Local papers keep watch on business interests and City Hall. Will technology lead to the erosion of institutional memory and professional standards?
Which Way, L.A.?
Will the LA Times Be Sold or Allowed to Just Fade Away? Five and a half years, the Chicago Tribune Company has cut more than 200 newsroom jobs from the Los Angeles Times , reducing the staff to about 900 people. Now Tribune wants to cut more. Last week, Times editor Dean Baquet went public with his refusal in an article in the paper itself. More remarkably, he was joined by publisher Jeff Johnson, who supposedly was sent out from Chicago to keep things in line. At the same time, a group of 20 prominent civic leaders have asked Tribune to beef up the staff or sell the paper. Is the Times uniquely important to Southern California’s culture and its sense of itself or just another assent in an faltering business?
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