Los Angeles Times Editor James E. O'Shea unveiled a major initiative Wednesday to combine operations of the newspaper and its Internet site -- a change he said was crucial to ensuring that The Times remains a premier news outlet.
O'Shea employed dire statistics on declining print advertising revenue to urge The Times' 940 journalists to throw off a "bunker mentality" and view latimes.com as the paper's primary vehicle for delivering news.
In his first significant action since becoming editor in mid-November, O'Shea said he would create the position of editor for innovation and launch a crash course for journalists to push ahead the melding of the newspaper and its website.
O'Shea named Business Editor Russ Stanton to the innovation post and said the "Internet 101" course would teach reporters, editors and photographers to become "savvy multimedia journalists," able to enhance their writing with audio and video reports. He emphasized the need for speed in reforming an operation that he called "woefully behind" the competition.
The 63-year-old editor made the announcement before a standing-room-only audience of journalists in an auditorium at The Times. He said that some might have a false sense of security about the newspaper because it has continued to post substantial profit. Last year, The Times earned an estimated $240 million before taxes, an amount considered high relative to its revenue.
Automobile advertising in the print edition will be about $47 million less this year than it was in 2004, O'Shea said. Only about half that loss will be recovered with new online ads.
"For every $2 we lost," he said, "we are recouping only about $1."
O'Shea added later: "If we don't help reverse these revenue trends, we will not be able to cost-effectively provide the news -- the daily bread of democracy. The stakes are high."
The newspaper's Web operations bring in about $60 million of The Times' $1.1 billion in overall annual revenue.
The announcement by The Times follows an industry trend. Many newspapers are shifting resources and energy to the Web, where revenues are growing, and away from print editions, where ad dollars are shrinking.
This month, the Wall Street Journal moved most of its breaking news and comprehensive data on financial markets to wsj.com. The publication now reserves most of its print edition for more analytical stories.
