• by Sara Guaglione , October 5, 2020

The Los Angeles Times’ top editor Norman Pearlstine is exiting the newspaper. 

“It has been an honor to serve as your executive editor since Patrick and Michele Soon-Shiong acquired the Los Angeles Times in June of 2018. Now, we have agreed it’s time to begin an open search for my successor,” he wrote in a note to staff on Monday.

Soon-Shiong hired Pearlstine to recruit a new top editor shortly after purchasing the LA Times. Pearlstine ended up becoming executive editor himself. 

In his note, Pearlstine added he has been asked to remain as executive editor during the search for his successor and accepted Soon-Shiong's offer to continue as an advisor after the next editor is named.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished,” Pearlstine continued. “I also recognize it’s the right time to find a successor — an editor who embodies the qualities needed to continue the Times’ revival.”

Before joining the LA Times, Pearlstine held senior roles at Time, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

Last week, the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board and Soon-Shiong apologized in published letters for a “history of racism” at the newspaper and vowed to make its staff and coverage more diverse, after demands were made by the Times’ Guild’s Black and Latino Caucuses this summer.

In April, Chris Argentieri, president-Chief Operations Officer of the California Times newspaper group, said the LAT’s advertising revenue had “nearly been eliminated,” due to the effects of the pandemic. 

The company was forced to furlough a number of staffers this year.

The Los Angeles Times had a total of 363,047 paid digital subscribers as of this summer