Los Angeles Times fires 20% employees, largest in its 142-year-old history

Paper's owner Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, defended the move, saying the organisation first needed to make progress towards building higher readership to make up for the heavy financial losses

American daily Los Angeles Times, on Tuesday, announced that it is firing at least 115 employees or 20 per cent of its workforce, in one of the largest layoffs the company has seen.

According to the newspaper, the move comes amid projections of heavy losses for the year ahead.

In an article published on January 23, the media major reported that the "cuts were necessary because the paper could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year…"

Paper's owner, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, defended the move, saying the organisation first needed to make progress towards "building higher readership that would bring in advertising and subscriptions to sustain the organisation."

The company, established in 1881, is also eyeing senior leadership changes to revamp its business operations in a bid to slash down the losses.

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"Today's decision is painful for all, but it is imperative that we act urgently and take steps to build a sustainable and thriving paper for the next generation. We are committed to doing so," Soon-Shiong said.

Washington unit hit the most

The company's Washington unit was impacted the most due to the decision, with several senior editors laid off, and the video department completely hollowed out. Many award-winning photographers in the unit were also let go of, the company said.

The series of job cuts among media outlets has been attributed to the disruption caused to business operations because of Covid-19 pandemic. For media organisations, the blow comes in the wake of budget cuts in the advertising department for businesses, which themselves are laying off hundreds of employees in a bid to cope with the revenue losses.

Notably, tech giants Google and Amazon were among the first to announce layoffs of hundreds of their employees as early as January 10, indicating that more such moves may follow as the year progresses.