A woman will lead the ‘L.A. Times’ for the first time in its 142-year history

A woman will guide the Los Angeles Times through its most turbulent period. The owners of the largest newspaper in the Western U.S. and one of the most important news outlets in the country have chosen Terry Tang, who has been with the organization since 2019, as its executive director. Tang, 65, thus formally becomes the first female editor the L.A. Times has had in its 142-year history.

Tang, 65, was named interim executive editor at the end of January, replacing Kevin Mérida, who lost the trust of the newsroom with a series of dismissals in June of last year. Tang’s appointment was preceded by a new wave of cuts announced by the newspaper’s owners, Patrick and Michele Soon-Shiong, who reported the dismissal of 115 journalists to face a year of “heavy losses.” The cut came in anticipation of a new period of financial losses, amounting to about $100 million, for the Soon-Shiongs since they acquired the newspaper in 2018 in a deal that included several smaller Southern California newspapers. In total, the organization has laid off about 200 workers since last year, 37% of the workforce.

The new editor must guide the team of journalists in a complicated ecosystem for the print media. Large news organizations such as The Washington Post, NPR public radio and CNN, as well as younger outlets such as Vice, The Messenger and Pitchfork, have reduced their staff, disappeared completely or been acquired by other publications. According to the job search firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the industry lost 2,600 journalists in 2023 after the drop in advertising and circulation and even as a result of the strike in Hollywood, which impacted local media.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Tang and her family moved to Japan, then to the United States when she was six years old. Her father was an employee of the airline Continental and worked near the Los Angeles airport, where the main editorial office of the newspaper is today. She studied economics at Yale and law at New York University. Additionally, she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in the early 1990s.

Her experience as a journalist is also linked to New York. She worked for two decades at The New York Times, where she held various positions. In 2019 she came to the L.A. newspaper as deputy op-ed editor.

“Terry in short order has demonstrated the capability of building on our legacy of excellence in journalism with stories that matter. She understands our mission to be a thriving pillar of democracy and the critical role that the L.A. Times’ voice plays — to our city, and to the world — in bringing attention to issues that matter most, especially for those whose voices are often unheard,” the Soon-Shiongs said in a statement released on Monday.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, a surgeon-turned media entrepreneur, was born in South Africa to Chinese parents who arrived there after World War II. He and his wife moved to Canada in 1977 and from there to Los Angeles three years later. Today his wealth is valued by Fortune magazine at above $7 billion. He has a minority position in the Lakers and various healthcare-related businesses.

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