Los Angeles Times editor Davan Maharaj is pleased with smaller staff

Subject: Rising To The Occasion
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2015 20:20:39 
From: Maharaj, Davan
To: yyeditall

Comrades,

For anyone wondering what the new Los Angeles Times was going to be like, they know now. You’ve been showing them all week. It’s good. Really good. Exceptionally good.

It’s like the old Los Angeles Times, but even faster and more digital.

When big news broke in San Bernardino – tragic, heart-wrenching news – our newsroom did what it does.

You swung into action and got scoop after scoop. You informed readers with live blog reports online. You crafted rich narratives. You wrote penetrating profiles. You shot memorable photos. You produced engaging videos and graphics.

You used social media to reach a huge audience.

Readers took note: “The LAT is demonstrating its enduring capacity to make sense of the chaos,” one wrote in an email, echoing what many others said. “I've seen hundreds of tweets crediting your collective work – the 16 reporters on the field filing LA Now posts and real-time tweeting whatever they learn... It's the one glimmering reassurance I lean on when I have no idea what the hell is going on. The big feature pages that you've introduced so far are rock solid, credible, informative, and genuine.”

Our competitors took note, too. “It’s amazing to see how the LA Times, after all it has been through, can bring it on a big story. Respect,” Lydia Polgreen of the New York Times tweeted.

Thanks, Lydia, for your kind words. But there was never any doubt here.

All of you should be very, very proud. We are.

-- Davan

h/t LAObserved