The video for this story is not available, but you can still read the transcript below.
No image

L.A. Times Fires Another Editor Amid Dispute Over Cost-cutting

For the third time in less than three years, the Los Angeles Times has fired its top editor -- this time ousting James O'Shea -- for rejecting an order to impose $4 million in budget cuts. Media experts offer analysis of the struggles at the newspaper.

Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

  • JIM LEHRER:

    Next, the continuing difficult times for the Los Angeles Times. Jeffrey Brown has our Media Unit update.

  • JEFFREY BROWN:

    For the third time in less than three years, one of the nation's leading newspapers has parted ways with its top editor in a dispute over cost-cutting.

    James O'Shea was fired by the Los Angeles Times this weekend after he rejected a management order to make newsroom budget cuts. Fifteen months earlier, O'Shea's predecessor, Dean Baquet, was dismissed in a similar dispute. And in 2005, John Carroll resigned, blaming "financial pressures."

    The L.A. Times is owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Company, which just last month was taken private in a buyout by real estate magnate Sam Zell.

    Joining me to update the situation is Jon Fine, who writes a weekly column called "Media Centric" for BusinessWeek magazine, and Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research organization. Among his many past jobs in journalism was a stint as media critic for the Los Angeles Times.