The Troubled Truce in La La Land

On Friday, after three years of negotiations that built toward an all-night bargaining session, the Los Angeles Times Guild reached a tentative agreement on a contract with newspaper management. While it may not have been the contract the union set out to secure in 2022, the news, first reported by Status, triggered a sense of “relief” among weary Times staffers, during what feels like a pivotal stretch for the paper—and indeed, journalism in the region—going forward.

On Monday, the new contract will be presented at a meeting to Times guild members, whose ranks have been dramatically thinned by multiple rounds of layoffs. The next day, Rupert Murdoch’s bid to lay its claim to the paper’s backyard with its New York Post spinoff, the California Post, will hold an event for advertisers, seeking to establish its presence as a viable alternative in the nation’s most populous state.

On the plus side, the contract includes guaranteed pay increases for the newsroom’s journalists, considered a win during a challenging moment for media employees across the industry. On the down side, the deal leaves much to be desired in terms of additional seniority protections and other securities the union was hoping to guarantee for members. “This is not the contract we wanted after three years of bargaining, but it is the deal we have,” Matt Hamilton, the Times Guild chair, candidly conceded in an email to members on Friday.

And alarms have been raised about the Times’ management, with red-pilled owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s involvement in editorial decisions, and particularly the opinion section, amid his pursuit of an initial public offering in a tough media economy. The fact that the union settled for a deal that fell short in some key respects reflects those realities, as well as Soon-Shiong’s priorities. In recent months, the paper’s pharma billionaire owner has turned his attention and resources to right-wing pet projects at the offshoot LA Times Studios, such as a video series featuring former CBS and Fox News correspondent Catherine Herridge—but not the newsroom.

The Times didn't respond to multiple requests for comment, but insiders say the key moment in breaking the long impasse came just over a month ago, when union members overwhelmingly voted to strike, raising the prospect of the paper’s first-ever work stoppage authorized by the Guild.

“For more than three years, the company took pretty extreme positions at the bargaining table,” Hamilton told Status. “Once we unlocked the leverage from the strike vote, that really accelerated the pace of negotiations and achieved movement there. That was only possible because the membership escalated their tenacity.”

Pressures related to the IPO might have also played a significant role. Union unrest, and specifically a strike, would have only served to scare off potential investors. Of course, Soon-Shiong has done plenty over the last year that has dampened the Times’ outlook, alienating many of the paper’s subscribers by spiking the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris and speaking out on his increasingly right-wing personal political views. As of last month, the Times’ average weekly print circulation had fallen to roughly 100,000, with paid digital subscriptions at 243,000—a dramatic decline for the paper that leaves it trailing far behind national rivals.

Outsiders are increasingly seeing a business opportunity as the Times’ footprint shrinks, from Politico’s growing coverage in Sacramento to outlets chronicling the state’s innovation economy in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Murdoch’s looming venture also represents a wild card, as the paper seems intent on courting a more conservative audience as Soon-Shiong lurches in that direction.

“The combination of the strike vote with the IPO worked in concert to create urgency,” one person familiar with the negotiations said.

The second of the three bargaining sessions included a nearly 24-hour “all-night marathon,” according to one person, which started at around 10 a.m. on October 30. Management and union reps camped out in respective conference rooms as proposals were brought back and forth, with both sides indicating they were willing to compromise in order to reach a resolution.

The bargaining session didn’t end until around 6 a.m. on October 31, when leadership, including executive editor Terry Tang, managing editor Hector Becerra, and chief business officer Chris Argentieri, marched into the union conference room, some swaddled in blankets from the all-nighter, with a final offer. “Everyone was a zombie,” by that point, the person familiar with the matter said.

That offer was then taken back to the union membership, who felt as though there was still more they could push for, including an improvement in the seniority package. The bargaining committee and management met again Thursday for one final round of negotiations, leading to some small improvements before management signaled they had already made their best and final offer.

At a time when journalists appear to have so little leverage, the fact the Guild won any concessions felt like a win. The union has shrunk from 450 members to just over 200 due to layoffs and buyouts, which didn’t spare members of the bargaining team. It also comes at a time of tension involving unionized shops, underscored by Condé Nast’s decision to fire four staffers who were involved in a union action, seeking answers about recent layoffs. The NewsGuild denounced that move as “illegal,” and New York Attorney General Letitia James threatened Condé leadership at a rally last week to “see you in court.”

For now, at least one hurdle has been cleared for both leadership and union staffers to be able to focus on rebuilding the Times after a challenging few years. Hamilton, for his part, struck a conciliatory note on that score, saying, “For the paper to survive, to change its revenue picture, it's going to take everyone working together, not seeing each other as enemies or adversaries.”

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