Oct. 26, 2006

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The editor of The Los Angeles Times said Thursday that he considered resigning after publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson was ousted for refusing to implement staff cuts ordered by the newspaper's owner, Tribune Co.

But Dean Baquet said he decided to put the paper first – even before his relationship with Johnson – and stay on.

Baquet told journalists attending the Associated Press Managing Editors conference that he agreed with Johnson that cutbacks proposed by Tribune would damage the newspaper's ability to cover its market. Baquet said that while he and new Times publisher David Hiller are in the process of establishing relations, his stand against further job cuts has not changed.

However, in an Oct. 6 interview in the Times, Hiller said a realignment of costs with revenue at the newspaper is all but inevitable. "Finding efficiencies and making cuts aren't new in any business," he said in the interview. "Newspapers all over the country have done them."

Baquet said he has received hundreds of e-mails from journalists around the country supporting his stand. And he said a new mood is arising in newsrooms that have felt the ax as parent companies seek to maximize profits.

"Newsrooms are angry now," said Baquet, a Pulitzer Prize winner who began his career at The States-Item in New Orleans as a police reporter. He urged editors to be more assertive in pushing back the tide of corporate cost-cutting.

This should be an exciting period for journalists, with the rise of new technologies and opportunities for delivering news; there are instead widespread fears of cutbacks, he said.

Over the past five years, the Times has endured more than its share of staff reductions, he said. "When the company wanted more cuts, I said no," he said.

"We're more than just a business," he said, and significant, continued cuts, will affect the ability of newspapers to keep readers and advertisers.

Baquet said there may be an end in sight as Wall Street analysts begin to question the strategy of cost-cutting to boost stock prices and profit margins. He said the investment community appears to be recognizing that the cutbacks are threatening the quality – and marketability – of the product.