Editor Baquet Agrees to Stay, Argue Against Cuts
“The Tribune Co. forced out Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson this morning, a little more than a month after he defied the media conglomerate’s demands for staff cuts that he suggested could damage the newspaper,” James Rainey reported Thursday on the L.A. Times Web site.
On the New York Times Web site, Katharine Q. Seelye later reported, “The company asked Dean Baquet, the paperâ??s editor, who had also resisted the cuts, to stay . . . and he has agreed to do so. Colleagues said he saw an opportunity to start fresh with a new publisher and to make his case for why the staff should not be cut back as much as Tribune has proposed. But one colleague noted that Mr. Baquet still retained the option to leave.”
Baquet’s decision drew criticism from at least one source, Nikki Finke, blogging for the L.A. Weekly:
“What an incredible gutless wonder!” she wrote. “Shame on him. Really, Baquet’s seeming decision just shows he cares only about his own ass. Because clearly he’s still going to have fire all those staff asses. Unless, of course, he’s looking to stage some dramatic ‘pang of conscience’ moment in the very near future for maximum publicity value. At least now journalism can stop characterizing him as ‘Dean of Arc’ and start referring to him as he really is: ‘Cover-Your-Backside Baquet’.”
On the Washington Post Web site, Howard Kurtz wrote Thursday night, “Baquet told editors and reporters that he believes he can reach an accommodation” with new publisher David Hiller “and wants to stay and fight the good fight,” according to Times staffer Vernon Loeb. Loeb said Baquet also told the staff that he is not backing down on his stance that the newsroom cannot sustain more cutbacks and believes the next move is up to Tribune,” Kurtz wrote.
Earlier, on the L.A. Observed Web site, Kevin Roderick wrote, “Baquet told an editors meeting at 11:30 that he can work with new publisher David Hiller. Baquet had coffee with Hiller this morning and apparently was told to make his strongest case for the Times fending off deep newsroom cuts. Hiller is expected to address editors this afternoon.”
Phil Rosenthal and Michael Oneal of the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday night, “Hiller said his initial meeting with Baquet was very productive. The two agreed to spend time getting to know each other’s perspective and pledged to have ‘an open conversation.’
“Asked what Baquet could say that might preserve jobs in Los Angeles, Hiller said, ‘I’m going to have an open mind. I don’t have a pre-baked plan in my head,'” the Tribune story said.
“Dean will have the chance to present our case why the newsroom should at least stay the same size,” Times Managing Editor Douglas Frantz said in the Tribune story. “Hiller said he would listen to him. . . . That’s all we’re asking for.”
“But it was unclear what would happen if Hiller, a lawyer who once clerked for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, presses Baquet for the staff reductions he has already rejected,” the story continued.
Times spokesman David Garcia did not return a call seeking comment.
When Baquet was named in 2005, the L.A. Times became the newspaper with the largest circulation to have a black journalist as its top editor.
- Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher: Mood ‘Grim’ in ‘L.A. Times’ Newsroom After Johnson Firing