Kevin Merida

Photo by means of Kevin Wolf/Invision/AP

Just over two years since joining the Los Angeles Instances, govt editor Kevin Merida introduced on Tuesday that he’s leaving the embattled paper.

In a letter to team of workers, Merida said that “with a heavy heart,” he would end his tenure effective this Friday:

Today, with a heavy heart, I announce that I am leaving The Instances. I made the choice in consultation with [paper owner Dr. Patrick Quickly-Shiong], after substantial soul-searching about my career at this stage and the way I will perfect be of value to the career I like.

He added:

I’m happy with what we entire together all through my tenure right here, and grateful to Patrick Soon-Shiong and household for the opportunity to lend a hand develop into The Times right into a up to date, progressive news media firm for a new era of customers. We’ve made super growth towards that goal, and I am hopeful that progress will continue.

Ours is a fierce, resilient, beautifully talented newsroom, and I am proud to have belonged to it.

Merida, a news veteran for many years who was once a senior VP at ESPN and spent 22 years at The Washington Post, joined the 142-year-old newspaper in Could 2021. On the grounds that taking over the top editorial put up on the LA Instances, the paper has faced challenges amid a changing, put up-pandemic media panorama that has viewed each traditional print and digital-only shops fight to thrive. All the way through the summer season of 2023, Merida confronted the wrath of his own employees after thirteen p.c of the paper’s workforce was once laid off. The LA Times also struggled with the dueling SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes that crippled Hollywood, a outstanding supply of its native protection, for months. Revenue projections had been overlooked, cutbacks have been made, and on prime of that, the newsroom’s own union continues to be ready for a brand new contract.

In a separate notice, Quickly-Shiong introduced meantime management except he finds a alternative for Merida: “withIn the close to term, the newsroom’s senior leadership crew, Julia Turner, Sara Yasin, Scott Kraft and Shani Hilton, will be overseeing the newsroom, with Terry Tang persevering with to steer Opinion.”

The put up LA Times High Editor Swiftly Exits Struggling Paper: ‘Hopeful That Development Will Continue’ first appeared on Mediaite.