• by Tony Silber , February 1, 2022

Seeking to strengthen how it pursues and delivers news to its served market, the Los Angeles Times on Monday announced a sweeping newsroom reorganization.

“The starting point is how we organize, program, package and deliver our daily coverage to digital audiences,” Executive Editor Kevin Merida said in the memo to the newsroom staff. “We’ll become more agile and energetic day-to-day in pursuit of stories the L.A. Times should own. Our guiding principles are to be fast, right and good. We’ll also become more disciplined in our story choices, and more intentional in tapping the talents of the entire newsroom.”

To drive those objectives, Merida said, California and Metro Editor Shelby Grad takes on a new role as deputy managing editor for news, overseeing journalism on all platforms.  Grad will drive coverage across departments, “ensuring we produce what we need to produce, when we need to produce it, and that we aggressively extend coverage — where essential — beyond the daily cycle into off-the-news investigations and enterprise,” Merida added.

Deputy Metro Editor B.J. Terhune will work with Grad, becoming assistant managing editor for news.

In addition, Hector Becerra, who had been city editor for the California section, becomes deputy managing editor for California and Metro, which Merida said has the newsroom operation’s largest staff.

Becerra is charged with refining the mission and “mining for new coverage gold,” to use Merida’s term. “He will oversee the coalition of beats, teams and distinctive voices that comprise our signature local and statewide coverage — from the 88 cities in greater L.A., to our evolving approach to communities of color, investigative journalism and the narratives that define the contours of the most populous state in America.”

The paper will also create what it’s calling a Fast Break Desk to accelerate news coverage. It combines the L.A. Now and Entertainment News teams and adds an array of journalists with the goal of creating more robust coverage of breaking news and trending topics throughout the day, evening and weekend. Terhune will oversee that effort.

“Our readers deserve a daily report that is consistently timely, lively and comprehensive, with the authority and high quality The Times is known for,” Merida said. “It will take the entire staff for us to accomplish our goals. In the coming weeks and months, we will announce other changes to our newsroom structure.”

The paper is currently recruiting for a managing editor position and will create other leadership positions, enlist more journalists in decision-making, and organize staff around core topics and growth opportunities, rather than traditional newspaper sections. “And we’ll prioritize diversity and inclusion in all that we do,” Merida said.