L.A. Times to Cut 500 Jobs in Phase 2 of Restructuring

The Los Angeles Times, announcing the second phase of a corporate overhaul, said Tuesday that it will dismiss about 500 full-time and part-time employees and organize many of the newspaper’s operations into four regional units.

Times officials said the moves are intended to cut the newspaper’s operating costs while increasing its advertising and readership throughout Southern California.

The latest job cuts, all in Times business divisions and none in the newsroom, come on top of the 250 positions earmarked for elimination when The Times announced the first phase of its reorganization on Nov. 3. The third and final part of the corporate overhaul, which probably will be announced later this month, is expected to include additional, but fewer, job cuts.

Kathryn M. Downing, the newspaper’s president and chief executive officer, said in a news release, “It is critical to reduce costs wherever we can to improve our overall financial performance and enable us to invest in future growth.”

Times officials said most of the 500 workers being cut are part-timers. The cuts primarily come in consumer marketing, with other reductions in advertising, finance, administrative services and human resources.

No editorial jobs will be eliminated in this phase or in the final phase of the reorganization, Times officials said. In the first phase, however, a voluntary severance program was announced to cut 30 editorial jobs.

Taken together, the previous 250 job cuts and the additional 500 cuts announced Tuesday will reduce employment by 12% from the September level of 6,400.

Separately, to try to spur business growth, The Times said it will reorganize the company and decentralize its management by dividing some business operations into four regions. Managers at each of the four units--the existing San Fernando Valley/Ventura and Orange County regions, along with the newly created Los Angeles and Inland Empire/San Gabriel Valley regions--will be responsible for circulation, local advertising, promotion and the new Our Times community news sections.

The four units will be headed by regional presidents who, in turn, will report to Robert G. Magnuson, The Times’ senior vice president for regions. The paper’s regional editors will continue to report to Times Managing Editor John Arthur.

“The Times is currently the No. 2 paper in eight out of 11 markets here, a situation that we must reverse,” Downing said. “To become the No. 1 paper, we need a nimble, decentralized organization in each of our diverse regions that can compete more effectively.”

Times officials noted that the reorganization is aimed at overhauling the newspaper’s business operations, not its news coverage. Times Editor Michael Parks said: “Readers should not expect to see a change in their paper tomorrow. But they should expect, even demand, improved coverage of their communities in coming months as we become stronger competitors.”

The Times, the nation’s largest daily metropolitan newspaper, is a unit of Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Co. Shares of Times Mirror rose 6 cents Tuesday to close at $55.25 on the New York Stock Exchange. The announcements were made after the market closed.