The Los Angeles Times today named Russ Stanton editor. Depending on how you feel about the present state of the newspaper business, this is either really good or really bad news, and for Stanton, a really good or a really bad job. I’m of the mind that it’s good on both counts, and not just because I once sat in a cubicle across the aisle from Stanton when we were business reporters at the Orange County Register.
For the past year or so, Stanton’s been the paper’s Innovations editor, charged with overseeing the paper’s Web site and more generally, bringing it into the digital age. For Sam Zell, the paper’s new owner, and the David Hiller, the current publisher, to tap a Web guy for the top job over the other finalist, a veteran Times editor whose rise through the ranks was took a more traditional trajectory, says a lot about the direction they want the paper to take. If they use this opportunity to continue beefing up their online news presence – and make money and save newsroom jobs doing it – they could create a template for newsroom innovation other papers would eagerly follow.
But none of this is happening in a vacuum. In the past three years, the Times has seen three editors come and go, all of them quitting to protest budget cuts that lowered newsroom headcount and morale. Revenue from advertising continues to drop at the Times and throughout the newspaper industry. On Feb. 14, the New York Times said it was cutting 100 newsroom jobs due to declining ad revenue. Nice Valentine.
Stanton will have his work cut out for him. For starters, he has to deal with the 100 news job cuts across the entire Los Angeles Times Media Group announced Feb. 13. In addition to the daily paper, the group includes community papers, a Spanish-language paper and an entertainment guide. But he appears up to the challenge. In a newsroom speech after his promotion, Stanton said: “”I have grown tired and am now hopping mad over this seemingly endless ‘Groundhog Day’ nightmare.” He also said The Times would have “to figure out how to break this self-defeating cycle before it does indeed result in our defeat.”