The Decline and Fall of the Los Angeles Times: Major TRONC Media Layoffs

It's a sad, sad day in the mainstream media world.

Who would have known, who would have predicted that the once might titan of news the Los Angeles Times would be selling itself off and spinning away its legacy to hedge-fund managers and venture capitalists who realize that the liberal print media is no longer a viable business model.

Nobody wants to read fake news!

Tronc cutsdozens of employees, including former Times Editor Lewis D'Vorkin

  

Tronc cuts dozens of employees, including former Times Editor Lewis D'Vorkin

Lewis D'Vorkin was named chief content officer for Tribune Interactive in February 2018.

Wow, that was a fast hiring and firing, now, wasn't it?!

Former Los Angeles Times Editor in Chief Lewis D'Vorkin was fired by Tronc Inc. on Thursday and several dozen other employees of the company were laid off.

D'Vorkin was the chief content officer of Tribune Interactive, a newly formed digital business unit of The Times' parent company. The reason for his removal was not clear.

D'Vorkin said the decision to part ways with the company was mutual. He noted that his "heart just wasn't in" the various initiatives that Tribune Interactive was planning.

Sure it was mutual ... sure it was. I have heard that kind of rhetoric many times before. 

Not buying it.

"In discussions with the company that were going on for a while, finally I said, 'You know, it's time for me to move on and explore new ventures that take me back to my entrepreneurial roots,'" he said. "Those are the things that are appealing to me."

In other words: "My services are no longer needed here, because the propaganda of the newspaper is no longer wanted by the general public."

The layoffs, which included Tribune Interactive's Los Angeles-based video and online content teams that operated separately from The Times, were due to a change in the company's business strategy, according to a source familiar with the cuts who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The new business strategy is most likely: "Decline gracefully and close up shop quietly."

A spokeswoman for Chicago-based Tronc declined to provide details, citing personnel privacy.

Departing employees in Los Angeles said they were laid off en masse during a staff meeting early Thursday afternoon that was originally supposed to be led by D'Vorkin. But he did not appear for the meeting, and instead, employees were told by a human resources manager that they were being let go. The manager cited a reorganization, according to people who were there.

OUCH! There is an easy schadenfreude in all of this, however. The corrupt left-wing media in this country has done so much damage to this country. They promoted some small-time state senator turned US Senator who had no business serving in the White House. They created Barack Obama and covered for his failures, fraud, sin, and anti-American animus. Only now are we learning that he was not just a friend of race-baiting hate-monger Jeremiah Wright, but he had close to Jew-hating Louis Farrakhan, too.

So much evil, so little time. How could the press be so incompetent and misleading?

Because they had a progressive, left-wing racist agenda dedicated to overtaking this country for decades.

The news comes after a tumultuous few months for Tronc and The Times, starting in August when several top editors were ousted from the newspaper. Tronc named Ross Levinsohn, a former Yahoo and Fox executive, as Times publisher.

Red wedding for the Los Angeles Times.

Levinsohn in October named D'Vorkin editor in chief of The Times. D'Vorkin's tenure was brief — just three months — and marked by several hostile encounters with the newsroom.

In January, Levinsohn was placed on unpaid leave after NPR reported that he had been a defendant in two sexual harassment lawsuits earlier in his career and engaged in "frat boy" behavior in work settings before joining The Times. He was later cleared of wrongdoing after a company investigation into his conduct and was made chief executive of Tribune Interactive.

#MeToo controversies in Big Media. Why is anyone still surprised? They covered for Big Hollywood, Big Media, and Big Academia for decades. The sins, crimes, and perversions of corporate media will only get worse as more is revealed. What a staggering failure of the media industry. 

Staggering.

Levinsohn remains with the company.

Also in January, The Times' newsroom voted overwhelmingly to join the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America — in part out of frustration with corporate ownership and concerns about pay.

And how has that worked out? More layoffs. So much

A month later, Tronc announced that it had entered an agreement to sell The Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune to L.A. biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong. The deal is expected to close this month.

Tribune Interactive was formed after news of Soon-Shiong's agreement to purchase the papers; many of its employees previously produced digital content for The Times.

In announcing the formation of the business unit in February, Tronc Chief Executive Justin Dearborn said Tribune Interactive would "deliver value for our shareholders through growing digital audiences for our award-winning journalism, new creative content and product initiatives, and growing digital and diversified revenue streams."

But how it would accomplish that was unclear. In recent weeks, Tribune Interactive employees in Los Angeles said they were not given tasks and felt abandoned by management. They were especially concerned when several Tribune Interactive executives, including D'Vorkin, moved out of their downtown L.A. offices to the Westside without alerting them.

That's because they were getting FIRED!

Thursday's layoffs came a few weeks after layoffs at the Chicago Tribune and other Tronc publications. On Wednesday, journalists at the Tribune announced that they had decided to form a newsroom union.

Final Reflection

LA Times headquarters is moving to El Segundo. Who knows how long the paper is going to last in the "Mayberry by the Sea". It's clear that the newspaper is under the pressure of creative destruction. The industry has to shift considerably now because of rapid technological advances, and they can't stop it.

The press rebelled against reality and lost. They can't stand up to innovation, either. The regressive left which has taken over the state of California is locked in a dying battle that they cannot win. The press had carried water for socialist, communist principles for decades.

Now they are being carried out to the graveyard of old and dead ideas. It's over.