The highest editor of The Los Angeles Occasions, Kevin Merida, instructed employees members on Tuesday that he was stepping down “after appreciable soul-searching about my profession.”
He stated his final day could be on Friday.
Mr. Merida was named the highest editor of The Los Angeles Times in 2021. He had beforehand labored as a high editor at The Washington Put up and ESPN.
Patrick Quickly-Shiong, the biotechnology billionaire who owns The Occasions, stated 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 progress and innovation,” Mr. Quickly-Shiong wrote.
Mr. Merida didn’t reply to requests for remark.
When Mr. Merida joined the information group, he was seen as a stabilizing pressure within the newsroom, which had been buffeted by company possession battles, cost-cutting and the painful erosion of its conventional enterprise mannequin and its stature because the pre-eminent information group on the West Coast.
However Mr. Merida’s tenure was not with out its turbulence. In June, the Los Angeles Occasions announced it was reducing greater than 10 % of its newsroom employees of greater than 550, citing financial headwinds.
Mr. Merida additionally drew pushback from some workers when he prohibited journalists who signed a letter condemning Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 assaults by Hamas from protecting the battle with Gaza.
In his observe, Mr. Quickly-Shiong stated that The Los Angeles Occasions would undertake a seek for Mr. Merida’s successor that would come with inner and exterior candidates.
Within the meantime, he wrote, the newspaper’s current management group would proceed to supervise the newsroom.
