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Another Editor Out at Los Angeles Times

The editor of the Los Angeles Times, James E. O’Shea, has been ousted by publisher David D. Hiller for resisting newsroom budget cuts.

The situation is a reenactment of the spectacle that took place a little more than a year ago, when the previous publisher, Jeffrey M. Johnson, and previous editor, Dean Baquet, were fired for refusing to make newsroom cuts.

The ousting of O’Shea makes the fourth time in less than three years that the highest-ranking editor or the publisher has left for that reason, according to the Associated Press.

Samuel Zell, the real estate magnate who took over the company last month, has said he believes the path to profit lies not in making cuts but in finding new revenue streams. It is unclear whether Hiller was acting on his own or under orders from headquarters, but those close to the situation said that Hiller had ordered $4 million worth of cuts from the newsroom budget.

The Wall Street Journal reported that O’Shea opposed the budget cuts that could have affected the paper’s ability to cover the election campaign and the Beijing Olympics, according to a source.

The Los Angeles Times put out a statement this morning that read, in part, “The Los Angeles Times, like all newspaper companies, is facing major challenges in charting a course that will be successful for the future. The path ahead is going to be difficult and requires that our people and our organization be aligned behind what we need to do. In that vein, we will be making several significant organizational changes to put us in the best position to succeed.  As a result of these changes, Jim O’Shea will leaving The Times.”

When former editor Baquet left the paper, he said that O’Shea might have an easier time dealing with corporate oversight than he himself did.

Baquet pointed out that O’Shea, coming as he did from the Chicago Tribune, already had a closer relationship with the headquarters in Chicago. O’Shea had also worked with publisher David Hiller for a few years.