L.A. Times names new editor in "battle for future"
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Times on Thursday named its fourth editor in three years, choosing digital news chief Russ Stanton as best suited to lead the newspaper as it fights for survival in a new media age.
Stanton, who had headed the newspaper's digital news report and Web integration, replaces James O'Shea, who was fired in January in a clash with Publisher David Hiller. Stanton was formally named to head the country's fourth-largest newspaper one day after it announced 100 to 150 job cuts.
Those cutbacks were part of larger cost-saving measures at the Tribune Co, which owns the Times, as the newspaper industry struggles in the face of declining advertising revenues and competition from the Internet. The New York Times said on Thursday it would eliminate 100 newsroom jobs.
"This is a critical period for the (Los Angeles) Times -- in fact for all news media -- as we change and grow, and show we can sustain the future of one of the truly great news franchises in America," Hiller said.
He told the Times in an interview for its Web site that Stanton, 49, was selected over two other top candidates because he could "best lead change in the newsroom." Also in the running for the job were Jim Newton, the Times editorial page editor, and Managing Editor John Arthur.
"We are literally in a battle to save the future of this great newspaper and we have to change to survive and thrive in the new world," Hiller said in the Times interview.
The Tribune Co went private in December in an $8.2 billion deal led by Chicago billionaire Sam Zell. O'Shea was fired in January, after just 14 months on the job, when he refused to carry out some $4 million in cuts.
O'Shea's predecessor, Dean Baquet, served only about a year and was also fired in a budgetary dispute.
Stanton, who grew up in California, has served as the Times' innovation editor, overseeing its digital news service, since February 2007. He joined the paper in 1997 and has also been its business editor.
The Times said it was also making "significant changes to its organization and leadership team" that included naming circulation chief Jack Klunder to the new position of president of the paper.
