By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 15, 2008

The Los Angeles Times named its fourth editor in three years yesterday, asking Russ Stanton, who holds the title of innovation editor, to lead a staff rocked by budget cutbacks and management shake-ups.

The appointment of Stanton, who beat out another in-house candidate, comes less than a month after the paper dismissed Jim O'Shea from the post in a battle over budget reductions. O'Shea replaced Dean Baquet, who was fired during a similar fight 16 months ago.

Stanton, 49, will have to make do with less. Sam Zell, the Chicago real estate mogul who recently took control of the parent Tribune Co., announced Wednesday that he would cut 400 to 500 jobs throughout the media company. Times Publisher David Hiller said that would mean eliminating 100 to 150 jobs at his paper -- by layoffs if necessary -- including 40 to 50 in the newsroom.

The newspaper industry overall is struggling with declining revenue. New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said yesterday he will cut 100 of the paper's 1,330 newsroom jobs this year, and that while he hopes to rely heavily on early-retirement buyouts, "we should brace ourselves for the likelihood that there will be some layoffs." The Washington Post said last week it will soon offer the third round of buyouts since 2003 in an effort to reduce the 785-person newsroom staff.

Stanton acknowledged this climate of retrenchment yesterday. "The circumstances under which Jim left certainly made it doubly difficult for whoever was coming into this job," he said. "Unfortunately, my first mission is going to be shrinking the size of the newsroom." But he said he would formulate a plan to break the "never-ending cycle" of cutbacks.

He also said the Internet "is now our best friend. . . . We want to get up information bigger, quicker, faster and with a lot more bells and whistles attached to it."

Stanton conceded he is worried about morale and losing more good journalists because of the upcoming reductions. But, he said, "despite the cutbacks, the L.A. Times is still one of the best newspapers in the world, and it's worth fighting for."

Hiller called Stanton a "strong leader" who in his previous job "convinced me he knows how to get stuff done. . . . He's well known, well liked. He's got a lot of goodwill in the newsroom. I think people will rally around him."

The 10-year Times veteran was business editor before taking the innovation post last year, overseeing the paper's Web operation. A Times story online said that Stanton "takes the editor's desk without the same range of experience of his predecessors." Some insiders likened the two finalists to the Democratic presidential contenders, with Stanton as the candidate of change and Managing Editor John Arthur, 60, the candidate of experience.