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When he joined The Los Angeles Occasions as its high editor almost three years in the past, Kevin Merida was hailed as a frontrunner who would restore calm to a newsroom that had been buffeted by cost-cutting and company possession battles.
Now, he’s exiting with little warning, an abrupt departure that leaves the biggest information group within the West in a state of flux.
Mr. Merida informed employees members on Tuesday that he was stepping down “after appreciable soul-searching about my profession.”
He didn’t specify precisely why he was leaving, however he did say that his final day could be on Friday.
Patrick Quickly-Shiong, the biotechnology billionaire who owns The Occasions, mentioned in a observe to the newspaper’s employees that he and Mr. Merida had “mutually agreed” that Mr. Merida ought to go away.
“Given the persistent challenges we face, it’s now crucial that all of us work collectively to construct a sustainable enterprise that permits for development and innovation,” Dr. Quickly-Shiong wrote.
In latest months, Mr. Merida has been at odds with members of the Quickly-Shiong household on a wide range of issues, together with editorial choices and enterprise priorities, in response to two individuals with information of the state of affairs.
Mr. Merida and the Quickly-Shiong household have clashed over his resolution to limit journalists who signed a letter condemning Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 assaults from overlaying the battle in Gaza, the individuals mentioned.
Some members of the Quickly-Shiong household raised objections to Mr. Merida’s resolution, one of many individuals mentioned, they usually had been unable to succeed in a decision with Mr. Merida and even mentioned promoting the newspaper.
Budgeting for 2024 has additionally led to conflicts, in response to the individuals.
Mr. Merida didn’t reply to requests for remark. A spokeswoman for The Los Angeles Occasions declined to touch upon tensions between Mr. Merida and the Quickly-Shiong household, including that The Los Angeles Occasions wasn’t on the market.
“We imagine in The L.A. Occasions and are dedicated to its future,” the spokeswoman mentioned.
Mr. Merida, 66, was named the highest editor of The Occasions in Might 2021, after beforehand working as a high editor at The Washington Submit and ESPN. On the time, he was seen as a stabilizing pressure within the newsroom, which had been buffeted by the painful erosion of its conventional enterprise mannequin and its stature because the pre-eminent information group on the West Coast.
Below his management, the information group received three Pulitzer Prizes, together with two in 2023, for breaking information reporting and have images. Nonetheless, like a few of its friends within the media business, The Occasions has struggled to offset the declines in its print enterprise with digital subscriptions and promoting.
These issues had been exacerbated final 12 months in Los Angeles, the place one of many main industries, Hollywood, was shut down for a lot of months due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes. That took a toll at The Los Angeles Occasions: The newspaper reported on Tuesday that it had fallen wanting its digital-subscriber targets.
Mr. Merida was handpicked by Dr. Quickly-Shiong, who bought the corporate in 2018 for $500 million. The acquisition was greeted with aid by many journalists on the newspaper, who had been via years of cost-cutting on the behest of company homeowners together with Tronc.
Dr. Quickly-Shiong mentioned he was buying the newspaper for social causes and promised to revive it as a civic establishment for the individuals of Southern California.
However the going has been tough for the Quickly-Shiongs, because the paper has grappled with headwinds which have bothered all the media business. The household offered The San Diego Union-Tribune, a sister paper, to Alden World Capital, a monetary agency identified for its cost-cutting. At one level, The Wall Road Journal reported that Dr. Quickly-Shiong was exploring a sale of The Los Angeles Occasions, which the corporate denied.
In June, The Los Angeles Occasions introduced it was slicing greater than 10 % of its newsroom employees of greater than 550, citing financial headwinds.
In his observe to the employees on Tuesday, Dr. Quickly-Shiong mentioned that The Occasions would undertake a seek for Mr. Merida’s successor that would come with inside and exterior candidates.
Within the meantime, he wrote, the newspaper’s present management staff would proceed to supervise the newsroom.
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