The Times’ downtown L.A. printing facility will shut down in 2024.
“The Times, as a community newspaper, is losing one of its strongest and most important platforms, and that’s not something we’re OK with,” City Manager Mike Feuer said Friday.
Los Angeles Times CEO Janet Robinson has told employees that the newspaper will remain open during a city-sanctioned shutdown.
“We will remain open,” she said Thursday.
The Times reported to Times readers that the city’s “long-awaited and long-anticipated” decision to close its downtown printing facility in 2024 had become official. The newspaper’s website later updated that information to say the Times had suspended publishing and laid off “at least 150” employees.
Los Angeles officials, led by Mayor Eric Garcetti, met with printing plant workers Friday to explain their decision to close the facility. Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer said they will take no action against the workers who support their decision.
Feuer said the decision came down to two things: The financial costs associated with maintaining the printing plant and the time needed to make the switch to a new digital printing press.
“We have no choice. There’s $25 million dollars” that would be required to move to a new digital press, Feuer said. “And I don’t think the people of L.A. want to see their job come at the expense of their livelihood.”
If the newsroom were to stay open, the Times would have to cut about 50 jobs, Feuer said. The newspaper would also need to spend at least $1.3 million in the first year to make the switch, Feuer said. The digital press would not be ready for at least a year.
But if the Times shut down, the workers would go to work for a digital printing operation run by a contractor in San Francisco.
Times officials said they had no plans to change the newsroom’s editorial, business or opinion pages.
“If you take those pages down, you’re not going to have your newsroom,
