LA Times in crisis; Tribune Company said "cannibalizing" paper

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: 'L.A.Times' Staffers Circulate Petition Backing Pair
By Joe Strupp
Published: September 19, 2006


LA Times editor Dean Baquet

NEW YORK -- A petition supporting Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet and Publisher Jeff Johnson for their stand against potential cuts by the Tribune Company began circulating Tuesday, according to newsroom staffers. Hundreds had signed the document that was to be sent to the corporate headquarters in Chicago before Thursday’s planned board meeting....

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The concerns come a week after Baquet and Johnson were quoted in a Times story criticizing recent talk of further cuts during a meeting with Tribune officials. "I am not averse to making cuts," Baquet said in the story. "But you can go too far, and I don't plan to do that. I just have a difference of opinion with the owners of Tribune about what the size of the staff should be. To make substantial reductions would significantly damage the quality of the paper." Added Johnson, "newspapers can't cut their way into the future. We have to carefully balance economic realities with serving our readers."

Since then, speculation has risen that Tribune officials may implement the cuts anyway, or possibly remove Baquet or Johnson. As Thursdays board meeting looms, the speculation has sparked talk of everything from a sale of the paper to Baquet’s resignation.

Frank Clifford, an editor, said the worry is more than the usual budget-time anxiety. “There is a feeling that this one could be graver,” he said of the possible financial cutbacks. “People are working numbly through it.”

Rohrlich said many staffers believe Tribune is just trying to make a short-term profit at the expense of long-term credibility. “We are all really concerned about maintaining the integrity of the institution,” he said, adding that Tribune is “cannibalizing its newspaper.”

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003124716