Included in Tuesday’s sweeping layoffs at the Los Angeles Times that saw the paper axe 20 percent of its newsroom was its D.C. bureau chief and her deputy—just hours before polls close in New Hampshire for a pivotal GOP primary.
Kimbriell Kelly shared the news to X just after noon, writing, “I was laid off today. Winning a Pulitzer was one honor of my life. Another, leading the Washington Bureau as its first person of color and only second woman.”
Also laid off was Kelly’s deputy bureau chief, Nick Baumann, who said he was hired last year to lead the paper’s coverage of the 2024 election. It’s unclear how the duo’s firing will impact the Times’ coverage of the New Hampshire primary and the ones that follow, but it underscores the widespread nature of the Times layoffs, which impacted 115 journalists in total.
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The layoffs came after weeks of strikes and departures from top editors, and less than a week after the paper’s newsroom guild eerily warned in a message to members about likely cuts, saying “This is the big one.”
Drama has plagued the paper since last summer, when it shed its staff by 13 percent across multiple desks.
In a news story about itself, which cited its billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, the Times revealed Tuesday that it was losing $30 million to $40 million a year and needed to build a larger audience to fund a newsroom of its size.
“It is indeed difficult to reflect upon the recent tumultuous years, during which our business faced significant challenges, including losses that surpassed $100 million in operational and capital expenses,” Dr. Soon-Shiong said.
It’s the most significant round of layoffs since Soon-Shiong bought the paper in 2018, and is “one of the largest workforce reductions in the history of the 142-year-old institution,” the Times wrote.
Impacted reporters learned their fate in a brief email that was delivered Tuesday, The New York Times reported. Some laid-off reporters revealed on X that they’d already lost access to their work emails just hours later.
“We are saddened to have to take this step and thank you for your work for the Los Angeles Times,” the email to staffers reportedly read.
Departments impacted by the cuts included its business desk, its Washington bureau, as well as breaking news reporters on its “Fast Break” desk. Jean Guerrero, who said she was the paper’s lone Latina columnist on the opinion desk, was also let go, as was Jack Harris, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat reporter. Cuts were also made to De Los, a desk that covers Latino culture and identity across Los Angeles and the country.
Brian Merchant, a tech columnist who was let go, described the cuts as “a bloodbath,” especially to its small business team.
“It was a small biz and tech section, but punched far above its weight,” he wrote on X.
Matt Pearce, president of Media Guild of the West that represents journalists at the Times, shared on social media that 94 of those being laid off were union members—about a quarter of its total membership.
“This total, while devastating, is nonetheless far lower than the total number of Guild layoffs initially expected last week,” he said.
