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Los Angeles Times slashes more than 20% of newsroom staff as the paper confronts a ‘financial crisis’ kraken at

The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, facing what senior leadership described this week as a “financial crisis,” commenced a round of painful layoffs across the newsroom, a workforce reduction that is set to be one of the most severe in the newspaper’s 142-year history.

The cuts will impact at least 115 journalists, a person familiar with the matter told CNN, or slightly more than 20% of the newsroom. Some 94 of those cuts will be among unionized employees, union chief Matt Pearce said, meaning a quarter of the union will be laid off.

Pearce described the total number of employees being laid off as a “devastating” figure, but said it was “nonetheless far lower than the total number” expected last week.

Among those laid off Tuesday was Kimbriell Kelly, the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief, along with significant cuts to its business and sports desks.

“The LA Times Washington bureau was decimated,” Sarah Wire, a Washington-based reporter for the Times wrote on X.

“They haven’t been filling jobs for two years now and that reduced number was cut even more today. There are five reporters left covering DC.”