The Times, Tribune and the city

On Sept. 12, 20 Los Angeles civic leaders sent a letter to Tribune Co., owners of the Los Angeles Times. The letter, signed by former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and other prominent citizens, warned that continued cuts and staff reductions were threatening to erode the quality of journalism at The Times. The letter called on the company and its stockholders “to resist economic pressures to make additional cuts.” On Monday, Tribune’s chairman, Dennis J. FitzSimons, sent a response defending Tribune Co.’s stewardship of the paper since it was purchased from the Chandler family in 2000. Both letters are reprinted below.

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‘Cuts would harm the paper and...our region’

September 12, 2006

Dear Mr. FitzSimons and Members of the Board of Directors:

We are writing to urge the Tribune Company to continue to keep the Los Angeles Times a vibrant paper of local, state, national and international importance, and to resist economic pressures to make additional cuts which could remove it from the top ranks of American journalism. As civic leaders in Los Angeles, we are particularly concerned about the effect that such cuts could have on our community.

During the second half of the 20th century, the Times lifted itself to become a paper of national and even global stature. Many observers consider it one of the five most important daily papers in the country. To some extent, that record of success has continued under Tribune ownership, as evidenced by the numerous Pulitzer Prizes it has earned during the past few years. We hope -- but we are concerned -- that the paper will continue to improve and to build on that record.

We are keenly aware that the newspaper business is going through a difficult period, and we don’t want to be unrealistic. Nevertheless, we have watched with concern as our newspaper has repeatedly reduced the size of its staff, cut the space given to news and declined in circulation. It puts matters into perspective, but is of little comfort, to know that such cuts are taking place elsewhere as well.

Of course, we expect nothing less than tight cost management from any company, but only up to a point. Newspapers, in our view, have a special public trust, a responsibility to serve the community while making a reasonable profit. Since it was acquired by the Tribune Company in 2000, the Times newsroom staff has been cut by at least 200 journalists; the amount of space devoted to news has been substantially reduced by over 70 pages per week, and the business side has been cut dramatically. A couple of years ago, the company reported that it had cut $130 million out of yearly operating costs at the paper -- and there have been additional cuts since then.

Recently, we have read that Tribune plans to cut $200 million more from its newspapers. We fear that the Times may be in the process of making additional cuts -- which will make the paper markedly less valuable to its readers, its advertisers and our community.

All newspapers serve an important civic role, but as a community voice in the metropolitan region, the Los Angeles Times is irreplaceable. We are not quite sure this is fully understood by those outside our community. The Los Angeles Times has a unique ability and responsibility to unify as well as educate what is a very geographically fractured and otherwise extraordinarily diverse community.

At various times many of us have met with Los Angeles Times representatives to urge more thorough and consistent coverage of the Greater Los Angeles community. We have been assured that the Times was most committed in this regard, as well as committed to remaining one of the nation’s great newspapers. But we remain concerned.

What is required here for our region to function well is more -- not less -- news coverage, particularly of the civic, political and cultural life of the region. The Los Angeles Times simply cannot be allowed to shrink to the point that it becomes just another newspaper. We are not structured like many traditional cities where influence may be more centralized, but rather operate within a complex network of business, government, community and philanthropic organizations and individuals. The civic education of this unusually diverse community is every bit as important as the traditional K-12 and higher education of our children in fostering the health and welfare of the region.

For all of these reasons, we strongly urge the Tribune Company to make an even larger investment in the Times and to resist the financial pressures to make cuts that would harm the paper and, in the process, harm our region. If, on the other hand, the Tribune Company believes this is not economically feasible given its own financial goals, perhaps a different mode of ownership would better serve Los Angeles.

Many of us would be pleased to meet with you to discuss these concerns more directly if you believe that would be helpful.

All organizations listed below are for identification purposes only.

Edward J. Avila

President,

Alliance For A Better Community

Elise Buik

President and CEO,

United Way of Greater Los Angeles

Warren Christopher

Geoffrey Cowan

Dean,

Annenberg School for Communication, USC

Maria Elena Durazo

Executive Secretary-Treasurer,

L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

David Fleming

Past Chair,

L.A. County Economic Development Corp.

Ronald Gastelum

Past CEO,

Metropolitan Water District of

Southern California

Antonia Hernandez

President and CEO,

California Community Foundation

Irene Hirano

President,

Japanese American National Museum

Brendan Huffman

President,

Valley Industry and Commerce Association

George Kieffer

Chair, Civic Alliance

Past Chair, L.A. Charter Reform Commission

Partner: Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Stewart Kwoh

President and Executive Director,

Asian Pacific American Legal Center

John Mack

Chair, L.A. Police Commission

Past President, L.A. Urban League

Robert K. Ross, M.D.

President and CEO,

The California Endowment

Robert Simonds

Film Producer

Steven L. Soboroff

President,

Playa Vista

Blair H. Taylor

President and CEO,

L.A. Urban League

Gary Toebben

President and CEO,

L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce

Liza White

President,

League of Women Voters of Los Angeles

Matt Toledo

President and Publisher,

Los Angeles Business Journal

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‘Great newspapers must constantly evolve’

September 18, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for your letter of September 12 regarding the Los Angeles Times. We appreciate your deep interest in the Times, and are in total agreement with your view of the vital role it plays in serving Southern California. We also absolutely agree that the Times is a great newspaper and that it is important it remain so. We are also confident you understand that in order to continue succeeding, great newspapers must constantly evolve based on changes in the media environment and the communities they serve.

Tribune’s own evolution in the newspaper industry began in 1847, when the first 400 copies of the Chicago Tribune were printed on a hand press in a one-room plant.

Joseph Medill, the legendary publisher, shaped the newspaper in its early years and instilled a sense of journalistic integrity that remains intact today. We feel strongly that great journalism is the foundation for everything that we do -- it has been for 160 years. And, during its history, Tribune newspapers frequently have been honored with journalism’s highest recognition -- winning the Pulitzer Prize 100 times. The Times itself has won 13 Pulitzers since being acquired by Tribune in 2000 -- five more than it won in the 10 years prior to our ownership.

Importantly, we also believe that outstanding journalism is vital to our business success.

Your letter addresses staffing and the management of financial resources necessary to make a reasonable profit at the Los Angeles Times. To provide context, the Times’ revenues today are actually below where they were at the time of our acquisition in 2000, due to structural changes in the media industry, as well as the industries of our largest advertiser categories -- automotive, movies and retailing.

In terms of editorial expense, the portion of the Times’ total revenues dedicated to news coverage is currently almost double what it was during what many refer to as the “golden age” of the newspaper, under Publisher Otis Chandler. It is also higher than in 1999, prior to our acquisition of Times Mirror. In fact, the Los Angeles Times has the largest editorial staff and budget of any metropolitan newspaper in America without nationwide circulation.

Over the past six years, the Times’ leadership team, with Tribune’s encouragement and support, has taken a number of significant steps to improve the newspaper, placing more emphasis on coverage of Southern California news, outstanding investigative reporting and expanded coverage of the entertainment industry. We expect additional emphasis on Southern California news in the future.

To cite just a few improvements:

* Many reader-focused section improvements have been completed. These include Calendar, California, Food, Health, Home and West magazine.

* In 2003, the Times launched its fifth regional edition, The Inland Empire, featuring expanded coverage of local and regional news/issues in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

* There has been significant expansion of the staff of latimes.com. Research shows that latimes.comtraffic is growing, and we expect further growth from this talented team that has been supported with significant budget increases.

Tribune has also made over $250 million in capital investments in the Times, designed to further improve the quality of the newspaper, enhance revenue growth needed to finance great journalism and improve efficiency through upgraded technology.

Some examples:

* Increased color printing capacity at the Times by 33% to give readers and advertisers a more engaging newspaper.

* A new production facility in Irwindale to automate insertion of preprinted advertising.

* State-of-the-art technology to enhance advertising, circulation and editorial efficiency.

* State-of-the-art space for the Times in Tribune’s Washington, D.C., multimedia news bureau.

We will continue to make major investments to better and more efficiently serve customers of the Times and all our other newspapers. We believe the collective scale of our company and the ability to collaborate across markets enhances our ability to do so.

Tribune and the Times are deeply committed to effectively serving our communities, readers, advertisers and shareholders in this rapidly changing media environment. This requires that decisions at the newspaper be made on a dynamic, forward-looking basis to deploy our very talented people and other resources to where they are most needed to achieve these goals.

We are committed to a companywide expense control program to offset inflationary cost increases and better deploy our resources to where they create the most value for customers. As our largest business unit, the Times will participate appropriately in these initiatives, all in the context of our customer and community focus.

The issue of local versus corporate ownership has received much attention in recent months. Neither is inherently better, but one only needs to look east to Dallas, New York or Washington to realize that outstanding, locally controlled newspapers are not insulated from the competitive realities of today’s media marketplace. And looking north to Santa Barbara highlights other issues that can develop under local ownership.

We would ask you to remember the L.A. Times as it was prior to being acquired by Tribune. Ownership was local, but as you may recall, the newsroom was in an uproar over a breach of journalistic ethics related to publication of a special advertising section. The publisher and editor were under fire from the newsroom, as was Times Mirror’s chief executive officer. The editorial integrity of the newspaper was in question.

Tribune changed that by returning the newspaper’s focus to the practice of great journalism. We appointed a talented publisher and editor, set parameters, and then stepped aside and let them do their jobs. The new team improved the quality of the paper, and we have been very proud of the many journalistic achievements and awards earned by the Times during our ownership.

In summary, we hope you will evaluate the Los Angeles Times and its related websites, not on the ownership structure or the size of their editorial staff or budget, but on how well they serve the community’s needs. We’re confident that by that measure -- or any other -- the Times is, and under Tribune ownership will continue to be, a truly great newspaper.

Thank you again for your letter. I hope to be seeing many of you in Los Angeles soon.

Sincerely,

Dennis J. FitzSimons

Chairman, President and CEO,

Tribune Company