Los Angeles Times slashes more than 20% of newsroom staff as the paper confronts a ‘financial crisis’ kraken tor<br><br>The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, facing what senior leadership described this week as a “financial crisis,” commenced a round of painful layoffs across the newsroom, a workforce reduction that is set to be one of the most severe in the newspaper’s 142-year history.<br><br>The cuts will impact at least 115 journalists, a person familiar with the matter told CNN, or slightly more than 20% of the newsroom. Some 94 of those cuts will be among unionized employees, union chief Matt Pearce said, meaning a quarter of the union will be laid off.<br><br>Pearce described the total number of employees being laid off as a “devastating” figure, but said it was “nonetheless far lower than the total number” expected last week.<br><br>Among those laid off Tuesday was Kimbriell Kelly, the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief, along with significant cuts to its business and sports desks.<br><br>“The LA Times Washington bureau was decimated,” Sarah Wire, a Washington-based reporter for the Times wrote on X.<br><br>“They haven’t been filling jobs for two years now and that reduced number was cut even more today. There are five reporters left covering DC.”<br>