LA Times to stop publishing three weeklies

The Los Angeles Times will stop publishing three community papers: the Glendale News-Press, Burbank Leader and La Canada Valley Sun, the Times announced April 16. The papers are part of the Times Community News division.

Fourteen employees will be laid off with severance. The job losses are hitting members of the Los Angeles Times Guild, as well as managers, the paper said.

Last editions of the weekly News-Press and Leader were set for April 18. The final edition of the weekly Valley Sun is scheduled for April 23.

Two Times Community News publications, the Daily Pilot and TimesOC, will go on producing in Orange County.

Meanwhile, the parent company of the Times is furloughing 40 employees for as long as 16 weeks, reducing senior managers’ pay and suspending 401(k) matches in response to the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Times reported April 14.

Union staff who belong to the NewsGuild are not affected. Chris Argentieri, president of the California Times, said the company would convene with union reps to talk about “cost-saving initiatives,” NYT said.

In a posting on Twitter, the L.A. Times Guild said it was “troubled” to learn of the moves affecting the business side, even though those workers aren’t members of the union. The union said that on April 20, it would hold a meeting to discuss the NewsGuild’s proposal for a national stimulus program for local news.

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