The Los Angeles Times is planning to lay off a “significant” number of journalists, the newspaper’s union has said, becoming the latest media outlet to shed employees in an era of collapsing advertising revenues. The LA Times Guild said that it would organise a one-day walk-out on Friday to oppose the planned layoffs. “The management of the Los Angeles Times has announced that it intends to imminently lay off a significant number of journalists, and is asking the Guild to gut seniority protections in our union contract so they have vastly more freedom to pick whom to lay off,” the guild said in a statement on Thursday. Media organisations have been haemorrhaging employees as they struggle to find a viable business model in the digital age. The total number of newsroom employees in the United States fell from 114,000 to 85,000 between 2008 and 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 19, 2024 07:19 UTC