January 24, 2024

115 Los Angeles Times journalists were laid off yesterday, too, which included almost a quarter of the L.A. Times Guild membership and disproportionately impacted journalists of color. This following 2023, a year in which nearly 2,700 media workers lost their jobs: the highest number since 2020.

Statement from the

@latguild on today’s mass layoffs at the

@latimes

__________

Statement on major layoffs at the Los Angeles Times from Black, Latino, AAPI and MENASA Caucuses

The announcement today of cuts at the Los Angeles Times eliminating 115 jobs has devastating implications for Black, Latino, AAPI and other journalists of color. 

If these layoffs are allowed to go through, our caucuses will be decimated. The Latino Caucus will lose 38% of its members. The Black Caucus will lose 36% of its members. The Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) caucuses will lose 34% of their combined membership. 

Our newspaper’s ownership made a promise to bring in talented journalists from diverse backgrounds so that our staff reflects the city we cover, in the most populous state in the country. These proposed cuts would severely damage what incremental progress has been made. 

De Los, a Latino-led, Latino-centered, initiative, will be gutted by these cuts. That is just one example of the ways in which this proposal would deal a disastrous blow to the efforts to build a newsroom in Los Angeles, where half of all residents are Latino. The cuts would also leave fewer than 20 Black staffers in the Guild, making it all but impossible to reach the company’s promised goal of 44 Black staffers by 2025. The newsroom’s sole reporting positions dedicated to covering Southern California’s diverse Black and Asian communities will be eliminated. 

We want to reiterate that the company pledged their commitment to diversifying the newsroom and coverage for the benefit of The Los Angeles Times and the communities it serves. You can find those promises here and here. That commitment has been broken. 

Signed, 

Latino, Black, AAPI and MENASA chairs and members