New 'LA Times' Editor Says: 'We Probably Will Be Purchased'

By: E&P Staff Until just days ago, talk of a Tribune Co. breakup or sale of the prized Los Angeles Times was widely seen as interesting speculation but not very likely -- especially after the Tribune sent its own people from Chicago to publish and edit the Times. But yesterday, in addressing his newsroom on his first day on the job, new editor James O'Shea said, according to a Tribune columnist, "I don't know how long I'll be here. We probably will be purchased. That could be better. It could be worse."

The account comes in today's column by Phil Rosenthal.

O'Shea also said he isn't "the hatchet man from Chicago." O'Shea was appointed editor after Dean Baquet was forced to resign last week. Baquet had refused to make staff cuts that Tribune said were needed to boost profits.

But O'Shea said that if he thinks there's too much staff, he'll "say so." And if he thinks there's not enough, he'll "say that too." He promised he would fight to ensure that the L.A. Times will remain "a major force in American journalism."

O'Shea, 63, talked to Rosenthal afterward. "It went pretty well," O'Shea told him. "It was important to tell them who I was, as opposed to a lot of the fears [about being] a hatchet man from Chicago."

He said he told the staffers, "You're going to hear a lot of things, and there's nothing we can do about it, so why not focus on journalism rather than the things you can't do anything about? So what do we do? We're journalists. Let's put out good newspapers, and whatever's going to happen is going to happen, and we'll worry about it then."

Rosenthal noted: "The Times staff gave him a bit of applause, a marked contrast to the smattering of hisses accorded Publisher David Hiller, another Tribune Co. transplant from the Chicago Tribune, when he spoke to the newsroom last week. ...

"Reminders of Baquet were everywhere. Besides the buttons with pictures of the former editor, who became a newsroom hero with his public defiance of cuts requested by Tribune Co., photocopies of Baquet's likeness were on bulletin boards."

Rosenthal said Times staffers were skeptical of the change but probably will give O'Shea, a former managing editor at the Tribune, the benefit of a doubt.