• by Ray Schultz , January 9, 2025

With wildfires raging throughout Southern California, the Los Angeles Times has shut off its paywall to provide coverage of the growing catastrophe. 

“Here’s tomorrow’s front page of the @latimes,” posts enterprise reporter Daniel Miller. “All our fire coverage is here, and the paywall has been lifted.”

Miller also says, “If you want a sense of the LAT staff’s commitment to telling this story, count the number of bylines and photo credits on that front page—and that doesn’t include the many editors, copy editors and others who are part of this team.”

This move has drawn praise from journalists in other organizations. 

The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond writes, “Shoutout to the Los Angeles Times reporters who are doing essential journalism under very difficult circumstances.” 

Diamond adds, “They’ve dropped their paywall, but their ongoing coverage is a good reminder of why local newsrooms need support — and what we lose when those outlets are hollowed out.” 

The Times reports that five people have died but that the death toll will likely be higher. In addition, more than 2,000 structures have burned and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders.