'L.A. Times' Editor John Carroll Steps Down, Baquet Takes Over

By: Joe Strupp and Jennifer Saba Los Angeles Times Editor John Carroll announced today he is leaving his post after leading the paper for the past five years.

Managing Editor Dean Baquet, 48, has been chosen to succeed Carroll, whose last day will be August 15. Baquet will become the first African-American editor to run the newsroom in the paper's history.

"I can't think of a better, more dynamic journalist," publisher Jeff Johnson said of Baquet.

"This is an exceptional newspaper, and it must remain so," Carroll told staffers at a newsroom meeting on Wednesday. He said he will probably find work in some form, "but I'm enjoying not knowing what form that will take."

"My goal is simple," Baquet said, "I want the Los Angeles times to be the best paper in America."

The company also announced on Wednesday that as part of the leadership transition, the editorial and opinion page editors will now report directly to the publisher.

The Times has cut positions and delayed editorial initiatives because of revenue shortfalls. In May, the paper reported that average daily circulation for the six-month period ending March 31 declined 6.5 percent, compared with the previous year.

[Exclusive interview with Carroll, in which he laments budget cuts: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000988601]

Carroll, 63, joined the L.A. Times as editor in 2000, arriving from The Sun of Baltimore, where he had served as editor since 1991. He had also held the top editor post at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader.

He joined the Times shortly before former publisher John Puerner, who came to the California daily after serving as publisher of the Orlando Sentinel. Puerner left in March 2005, replaced by Jeff Johnson, who had been the Times' executive vice president/general manager.

Carroll and Puerner took over the paper at one of the most difficult times in its history, following the Staples Center scandal. The Times had been heavily criticized for sharing half the profits from a special Sunday magazine section about the new downtown arena with the Staples Center itself.

The incident led to the departure of former Publisher Kathryn Downing and Editor Michael Parks. Soon afterward, the paper was sold to Tribune Co., which has been credited with restoring its respectability, in large part through the hiring of Carroll and Puerner.

But in recent years, the paper has taken a financial drubbing. Even when it won five Pulitzer Prizes in 2004, the second-most ever for a single paper in one year, the accolades were somewhat overshadowed. Two months after the Pulitzer sweep, Tribune Co. announced mandated layoffs of 200 employees, with the Times bearing the brunt. One hundred and sixty jobs were eliminated at the paper, including 60 editorial positions. Two-thirds of the departing journalists took voluntary buyouts.

In addition, two Times-owned newspapers in the nearby Inland Empire were shut down, while the Times national edition folded on Dec. 31, 2004.

The paper also took huge hits in circulation over the past two reporting periods. For the six months ending September 2004, daily circ slid 5.5% and Sunday dropped 6.3%. For the latest period, ending March 2005, daily copies decreased 6.4% and Sunday fell 7.9%. Total advertising revenue for the paper rose less than 1% in the second quarter of 2005.

Another hit came when General Motors announced in April that it was pulling advertising from the Times in response to a series of unfavorable articles, including one written by Pulitzer-prize winning car columnist Dan Neil on April 6. The paper would not disclose the amount of money lost, but some analysts estimated that GM, one of the paper's largest advertisers, spent close to $20 million in 2004. As of early July, Tribune was still in negotiations with the automaker to return.

Still, Carroll has been seen as something of a savior for the editorial staff, which praised his hiring of several top editors, most notably Baquet, who left The New York Times for the West Coast job.

Last year, Carroll drew both criticism and praise when he allowed a series of scathing stories about California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to run just days before his victory in a gubernatorial recall election. The stories cited accusations by several unidentified women that Schwarzenegger had made unwelcome sexual advances.

Just last weekend, the paper unveiled a tighter ethics policy that restricted using anonymous sources, prohibited almost all sports writers from voting on awards, and limited personal Web logs for reporters.

When Puerner departed four months ago, The Times reported that Carroll had no plan to follow Puerner out of the company but he was not sure what the future would bring. "Editors live from publisher to publisher, and we have a new publisher who I know and like," Carroll said at the time. "And I hope he knows and likes me. But, you know, nothing is guaranteed in life."