Opinion: Editor Baquet out*

When I came here four weeks ago, Dean Baquet and I agreed that we would work to get to know each other, for me to get to know the newspaper, and we would decide if we were on the same page in terms of the strategic and operating direction of the paper. After considerable discussion, we concluded that we have significant differences on future direction, and so Dean will be leaving. [...] Part of that last point relates to levels of staffing and other resources, and how we allocate and re-allocate resources as our business changes, As I write this, I still do not have a definite view of staffing levels across the company, including in the newsroom. We are working through these issues in connection with the 2007 operating plan. I think it is very important, as I said in my note earlier, that all of these resource and staffing issues be decided within a framework of where we are leading the business for the long term. It is also important that all of us be aligned on how we will approach these needed changes, and that we lead these changes positively and with confidence. I appreciate that not everybody will agree and choose to join in this direction, and that’s ok. Smart and reasonable people can differ significantly. Everybody gets to choose whether this is a direction they can support, and do so with excellence and passion. But decide we all must, because the last thing we can stand is confusion on our mission and objectives. It’s going to be hard enough as it is.

Mr. Baquet and Mr. Hiller were in preliminary discussions about staffing levels when Mr. Baquet gave a speech late last month in New Orleans in which he encouraged editors at other newspapers to ‘push back’ more against owners who wanted to reduce the size of newsrooms. Mr. Hiller was angered and disappointed at the New Orleans speech, according to people at the newspaper, especially as he and Mr. Baquet were trying to reach an accommodation over the budget for The Los Angeles Times.

Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan refused to allow an Associated Press reporter into the newsroom to hear Baquet speak, saying ‘it’s an internal matter.’

‘Baquet was seen as the last line of defense for the newspaper’s editorial integrity,’ said Court. ‘His removal is a sign that the hog butchers from Chicago will be slashing jobs in the newsroom of Los Angeles’s only remaining major newspaper, even as local suitors seek to purchase the newspaper from the company at a fair price.’ It’s time for subscribers of the Los Angeles Times to unite and take their newspaper back, said FTCR. It asked subscribers to begin by sending a fax posted at http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/corporate/subscriberrevolt, demanding that the Tribune either reinstate Baquet, rescind its next round of cuts and concentrate on building the newspaper’s coverage; or sell it to local owners ready to pledge similar action before the end of the year. Without such changes, subscribers can threaten via the fax to cancel their subscriptions by Jan. 1. [...] ‘This Election Day, readers who care about having a great Los Angeles newspaper should unelect the Tribune’s management of the L.A. Times,’ said FTCR research director Judy Dugan, a former editorial board member of the Times. ‘Tribune’s strategy is aimed at short-term improvement of the stock price and saving the hides of Tribune executives, not at reinforcing a great local paper.’