Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
LA Weekly's new owners fire almost everyone. What's next?
Graffiti art on the LA Weekly building.
(
A Syn / Flickr Creative Commons
)
LA Weekly's new owners didn't waste any time gutting the publication. On Thursday, the day after Semanal Media completed its purchase of the alt weekly, they slashed the staff, laying off nine of 13 editorial employees.
The axed staffers include editor-in-chief Mara Shalhoup, managing editor Drew Tewksbury, arts and culture editor Gwynedd Stuart, music editor Andy Hermann, food editor Katherine Spiers, longtime reporter Dennis Romero, film critic April Wolfe and multimedia designer Garry Santos.
Former editor-in-chief Shalhoup tweeted:
Support for LAist comes from
Publisher Matt Cooperstein and some employees on the business and marketing teams also lost their jobs, reports the Los Angeles Times.
What makes the situation more distressing, both for employees and fans of the outlet, is that no one knows who truly owns LA Weekly.
Previous owner Voice Media Group put the alt weekly up for sale back in January 2017.
Semanal Media, a private company created just to purchase LA Weekly, bought the outlet — but has never revealed most of its investors.
Only one of Semanal's investors is publicly known: CEO David Welch, a well-known marijuana lawyer.
Kevin Roderick, the founder and editor of LA Observed, questioned whether LA Weekly would be able to publish its next print edition with the staff cuts.
"The nature of these cuts suggests that there is another staff waiting to be brought in to run the LA Weekly, but we’ve yet to see who that might be," Roderick told KPCC.
Support for LAist comes from
Earlier this month, Semanal announced that Brian Calle will manage LA Weekly's operations. Calle is a former opinion editor for the Southern California News Group, which owns several newspapers and websites, including the Los Angeles Daily News, the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
LA Weekly was founded in 1978 and for years offered a punchier, quirkier, more aggressive voice in local news, arts and food coverage.
But the new media shift hasn't been kind to alternative weeklies. Many of them are floundering in the gap between vast, old school media outlets like the Washington Post and fully digital operations like Buzzfeed.
"We don’t know what the LA Weekly is going to be after this or whether it’s even going to continue to publish in print," Roderick said.
[Full disclosure: The writer of this story spent nearly two years as a restaurant critic and food writer for the LA Weekly.]
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
After rising for years, the number of residential installations in the city of Los Angeles began to drop in 2023. The city isn’t subject to recent changes in state incentives, but other factors may be contributing to the decline. -
The L.A. City Council approved the venue change Wednesday, which organizers say will save $12 million in infrastructure costs.
-
Taxes on the sale of some newer apartment buildings would be lowered under a plan by Sacramento lawmakers to partially rein in city Measure ULA.
-
The union representing the restaurant's workers announced Tuesday that The Pantry will welcome back patrons after suddenly shutting down six months ago.
-
If approved, the more than 62-acre project would include 50 housing lots and a marina less than a mile from Jackie and Shadow's famous nest overlooking the lake.
-
The U.S. Supreme Court lifted limits on immigration sweeps in Southern California, overturning a lower court ruling that prohibited agents from stopping people based on their appearance.
Best of LAist