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The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to close to a quarter of the people working in its newsroom. The Media Guild of the West, which represents the Times' unionized journalists, says that the cuts included reporters, editors and columnists. A union statement also said that the layoffs fell disproportionately on Black, Latino and Asian employees. The layoffs follow the resignation of executive editor Kevin Merida and other senior newsroom managers. LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong said the paper has been losing $30 million to $40 million a year and need to make more progress toward increasing revenue and readership. “Slashing a quarter of the newsroom is devastating by any measure — to our members and their families, to our morale, to the quality of our journalism, to the bond with our audience, and to the communities that depend on our work,” the Guild said.
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TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which accounts for approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff. According to a TIME spokesperson, the cuts hit departments including editorial, technology, sales and the company’s studios division. At TIME for Kids, the platform’s publication for school-age children, a majority of the staff was let go. “We have worked to manage expenses in other areas of our business aggressively to minimize the impact of this decision on our employees,” TIME chief executive Jessica Sibley wrote in a memo to staffers that was obtained by CNN. Sibley called the job cuts part of “a series of decisions to structure our company for long-term sustainability and growth.”
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The Baltimore Banner, the nonprofit platform that faces off against the Baltimore Sun says that it added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following the sale of the paper to Sinclair Broadcast Group chairman David D. Smith by Alden Global Capital, according to NiemanLab. Banner editor in chief Kimi Yoshino also says that traffic to the Banner website has doubled since the sale and donations are up. The Banner now claims 89,000 paid subscribers, versus 70,000 seven months ago. Banner founder Stewart Bainum made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Sun in 2022.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
Los Angeles Times editor Kevin Merida is exiting, effective Jan. 11... News Corp brings on Arthur Bochner, who most recently served as VP, strategic communications at the Walt Disney Company, as chief communications officer and EVP following the retirement later this year of Jim Kennedy... Hearst Magazines names Lindsay Horrigan SVP, consumer growth officer, a new position at the company. 
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