Business
Column: L.A.'s ultimate heartbreak industry isn’t Hollywood. It's local journalism
Whenever I think of the perilous state of local news, I think of Delicious Pizza in West Adams.
Great pizza! Small space, cool atmosphere. In the fall of 2017, I found myself there along with other journalism castoffs cursing the news gods.
I had just resigned as editor of OC Weekly after I refused to lay off half the staff. Daniel Hernandez was out of a job at VICE News after nearly four years there. Julia Wick had led the original LAist until its owner shut down the website because he claimed it wasn’t economically successful. Former LA Weekly editor-in-chief Mara Shalhoup was axed alongside most of her writers and editors after a new owner acquired the venerable alt-weekly.
Over beers and slices, we laughed and shared stories and fretted about the eternal erosion that is American journalism. None of us were about to give up on our beloved profession, though. There was talk of creating our own publication, but nothing serious. Instead, we hugged and went on to the rest of our lives.
Today, Mara is ProPublica’s South editor. Daniel edits The Times’ food section. Julia is on The Times’ 2024 election team. I’m a Times columnista, of course, frequently using Southern California’s past as a prism to understand what’s happening now and what might occur in the future.
And boy, does it not look good for local journalism — again.
Last month, the nonprofit Long Beach Post, which expertly covered the port city while the Press-Telegram atrophied, laid off nearly everyone. The publication’s board of directors maintained the move was necessary to save it from financial ruin — but former staffers insist it was retribution for their attempt to form a union.
Reporters for Knock LA, which focuses on social justice issues and law enforcement corruption, accused the publication’s sponsors, the leftist group Ground Game LA, of exiling them after they asked to spin off Knock into its own standalone entity.
For the record:
4:09 p.m. April 17, 2024An earlier version of this article said that Ground Game LA is the fiscal sponsor of Knock LA. Knock LA is part of Ground Game LA, and the two organizations share funding.
In the for-profit world, L.A. Taco, which centers food coverage while covering working class communities across Southern California, furloughed nearly everyone on its small team. Editor-in-chief Javier Cabral said they would be laid off if the publication isn’t able to hit 5,000 members by the end of April. (They were at 2,800 as of Monday). This follows the shuttering of one of California’s oldest continuously operating newspapers, the Santa Barbara News-Press, last year.
And, of course, there’s this paper. More than 100 of my colleagues were laid off last summer and earlier this year. Others took buyouts, and it seems recently that farewell emails from colleagues moving on to other jobs or retiring hit my mailbox daily.
It’s easy to portray what’s going on in local media as unprecedented and catastrophic, especially in the face of similar layoffs nationwide during an election year where accurate facts and nuanced coverage matter more than ever. But Southern California has always been an ossuary of failed publications done in by apathetic readership, clueless owners or a combination of both.
A 2006 rally at De La Guerra Plaza in front of the Santa Barbara News-Press newspaper’s offices. The newspaper, one of the oldest in California, ceased publishing last year.
(Michael A. Mariant / Associated Press)
Every generation in L.A. seems to suffer a journalism mass extinction event. In addition to what’s happening right now and what happened in 2017, there was the shuttering of two alt-weeklies, Los Angeles CityBeat and the Long Beach-based The District Weekly, at the turn of the aughts. I remember the demise of La Banda Elastica and Al Borde, two Spanish-language publications that focused on rock en español through the late 1990s and 2000s. Older folks will remember the end of the L.A. Herald Examiner in 1989, whose grandiose downtown headquarters are now used as a satellite campus by Arizona State University.
L.A.’s heartbreak industry isn’t Hollywood; it’s journalism. To paraphrase what the late A. Bartlett Giamatti said about baseball, it’s designed to break the hearts of those who work it.
You join the profession knowing that long hours, low pay and no respect from the public is the norm, yet you jump in anyway. You revel in your colleagues, your shared sense of mission and the stories you do — but then the reality of economics sets in, and you realize the good times won’t last. You wonder why readers don’t subscribe, why editors and publishers don’t innovate. You see co-workers lose their jobs or leave the profession — and then it’s your turn, one way or another.
It’s easy to armchair quarterback why publications fail. Blame technology, fragmented audiences, a lack of trust in news — it’s all of that, and more. But these conditions existed before photos appeared in newspapers, and will persist long after whatever Elon Musk inserts in our brains so we can’t quit X.
What’s going on in Southern California journalism is sadly familiar — yet not hopeless. There is something new with this generation of journalism orphans. In the past, we downed shots and mourned as our publications died. Now, to paraphrase another literary luminary, Dylan Thomas, reporters are not going gentle into that good night.
Long Beach Post and Times staffers have publicly protested against their bosses. Knock L.A.’s banished writers and editors are shaming their former benefactors online. L.A. Taco is asking for money like an NPR host during a fund drive pounding nitro cold brew.
“We went public with our dire situation, because how can you expect help if you don’t ask for it?” said Cabral, 35, who I’ve known since he was a teenager with his own food blog. “Journalism for me has always been a fleeting career in flux that pulls the rug right under you when you start to get comfortable.”
I wish all of these folks well as they try to make it, including my colleagues at The Times, which has been unionized since 2018 and where we’ve worked for almost a year and a half without a contract. But even if we all fail, the dream to do good journalism in Los Angeles will never die. More publications are already rising.
The Los Angeles Public Press is barely a year old but is already making an impact with its coverage of the San Fernando Valley and Southeast L.A. County. Caló News, which focuses on Latino issues, will launch its own initiative to cover southeast L.A. County this summer. Newsletters run by individuals are filling in news holes and getting subscribers in the process. Hyperlocal publications like The Eastsider and This Side of Hoover are still informing readers about their communities.
Last month, I attended a forum at City Club LA hosted by the nonprofit Latino Media Collaborative, which sponsors Caló News, about what it deemed a “crisis” in Southern California journalism. Among the speakers were former La Opinión publisher Monica C. Lozano and California Community Foundation Chief Executive Miguel A. Santana. The conference room was packed with reporters young and old hoping to plug into the millions of dollars that local and national philanthropic organizations are planning to spend on L.A.-focused news operations in the coming years.
I wish them well, too — because someone has to succeed in this cursed industry, right? Right?
Tennessee propositioned Paramount Skydance, hoping to tempt it to become the next company to leave California.
As California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta gathered a coalition of 12 state attorneys general to try to block Paramount’s $111-billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, Tennessee slid into Paramount’s DMs, suggesting it would be better treated in the southern state.
Corporate flight from the Golden State has increased in recent years, with many California-based companies fleeing for lower taxes and more lax business regulations. For the first time this year, California was not the state with the most Fortune 500 companies, after Texas dethroned it in June.
California companies packing up their people and headquarters to move to Texas has been a well-traveled road for those looking for options. Now Tennessee wants to be in the running as a prime destination as well.
Here is what you need to know about its efforts:
What happened with Paramount?
In a July 2 letter to Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison, Tennessee Deputy Gov. Stuart McWhorter pitched a relocation of the studio’s Hollywood headquarters to the Volunteer State. In the middle of a brutal legal battle with California regarding the proposed Warner Bros. merger, Tennessee may appear more appealing to Ellison. Paramount relocated its headquarters from New York to Los Angeles in August of last year.
“As Paramount Skydance writes its next chapter, Tennessee offers a compelling proposition: a state where creativity and technology converge, where talent is developed intentionally, and where innovation is embraced,” said McWhorter in the letter viewed by The Times. “We would welcome the opportunity to share our vision for how Tennessee could help shape the future of Paramount Skydance and its talented team.”
Though many in Hollywood have giggled at the idea of a major studio moving to the South, it isn’t totally ridiculous.
Ellison has backing from his father, tech billionaire and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Oracle, once a California-based company, is now moving its headquarters to Nashville.
In December of 2020, the software tech company left California, where it was founded in 1977, to relocate to Texas. In April 2024, it chose Nashville as the home for Oracle’s “world headquarters,” which began construction in February.
Have other companies moved to Tennessee?
Oracle isn’t the first company to set up in Tennessee. Nissan, which had operated its U.S. headquarters out of Gardena since 1960, left the state in 2005 for Franklin. Nissan chose Tennessee for its drastically lower operational costs.
Mitsubishi Motors also moved its headquarters to Franklin from Cypress in 2019. Mitsubishi moved for lower operational costs and to be in a state with less-strict business regulations than California‘s.
Two beloved California burger chains moved to Tennessee.
In 2018, CKE, the parent company of Los Angeles-founded Carl’s Jr., also left California for Tennessee. CKE consolidated Carl’s Jr. and its St. Louis chain, Hardee’s, under its headquarters in Franklin.
In-N-Out — arguably California’s most iconic burger spot known for its animal fries and double doubles— began a transition out of California in 2023. It established a corporate office in Franklin, and last summer, owner and Chief Executive Lynsi Snyder announced her own move to Tennessee.
Last year, Snyder said pandemic-era restrictions and California policy motivated her decision to leave, but she has no plans for In-N-Out to expand farther East. The majority of In-N-Out locations are still in California.
“There’s a lot of great things about California, but raising a family is not easy here. Doing business is not easy here,” Snyder said.
What is so special about Tennessee?
The southern state’s highly business-friendly tax incentives make it an extremely desirable location. Businesses and billionaires are drawn to Tennessee by its lack of state income and property taxes. Instead, the state relies on a 7% sales tax as its main source of tax revenue. Tennessee also offers a number of tax credits and grants for businesses, including many designed to support newly relocated businesses, cover costs of training new employees, and construction.
Tennessee’s central location and well-connected infrastructure support supply chain logistics. Seven interstate highways run through Tennessee, and six of the United States’ class 1 rail lines operate there, allowing companies to cut transportation costs dramatically. Memphis is also home to the busiest cargo airport in the country.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development says the state has one of the best business incentive programs in the country and has been ranked the third best state for doing business by Chief Executive magazine.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee attributes the success to the state’s competitive tax policy, workforce, and quality of life.
“Companies choose Tennessee because they recognize the strength of our workforce, our strategic location and our ability to support long-term growth,” Lee said in an emailed statement. “Tennessee’s success comes from our commitment to helping businesses thrive.”
Two Amazon delivery service partners are shutting offices and laying off hundreds.
Xpress Delivery, located in Oakland, will be laying off 80 employees. OnPoint Logistics will be ceasing operations at its San Francisco location and cutting 96 jobs, according to a government filing.
Amazon delivery service partners are independent businesses that partner with Amazon to deliver packages from a local fulfillment center to the delivery station using Amazon delivery vans and provided devices.
In January, Amazon announced it would cut 16,000 jobs from its workforce and announced additional layoffs in May in its selling partner services team.
These are only joining a growing list of layoffs across California’s tech and business hubs. LinkedIn, Cisco, Meta, and Oracle have all announced layoffs this year. Both LinkedIn and Cisco cut around 5% of their workforce overall, with hundreds of those layoffs occurring in California. Meta and Oracle slashed over 10% of their workforces in favor of implementing AI into its operations.
Both OnPoint and Xpress delivery stations will permanently cease operations, and no replacement companies have been announced yet to operate there.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.
Netflix has long been seen as the winner in the streaming wars, with more than 325 million subscribers globally and hits like “Stranger Things” and “KPop Demon Hunters.”
For months, Netflix had been telling investors how it planned to scale its business to new heights by acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, a potentially transformative media deal.
But after the streaming giant passed on buying the media company in February, Netflix has faced persistent questions from investors about its plans for staying on top.
Reflecting the investor unease, Netflix’s stock price, which closed Tuesday at $73.68 a share, has declined 21% this year and is down 42% from a year ago.
“Obviously, they have a very successful business,” said Ross Benes, a senior analyst at research firm eMarketer, adding that most of Netflix’s revenue comes from its subscriptions. “Your investors always want to just see more and more and more, and they mostly provide that one thing.”
Part of the reason investors are anxious is that Netflix’s share of TV viewing time in the U.S. has steadily declined in recent months as rival YouTube has gained market share, according to Nielsen data.
Netflix represented 7.8% of all TV viewing in the U.S. in April — the lowest percentage since May 2025. It was 7.5% in April 2025, Nielsen said.
By comparison, YouTube has seen its share of the streaming audience go up. YouTube’s TV viewing share in April rose to 13.4%, up from 12.4% a year earlier, Nielsen said.
Some investors fear that if viewership is down, subscribers could cancel the service, which would negatively affect the platform’s growing advertising business. It could also undercut Netflix’s ability to raise prices in countries like the U.S.
Despite the investor jitters, equity analysts estimate Netflix will have a strong second quarter, with revenue increasing 14% to $12.58 billion and net income rising 8% to nearly $3.38 billion, according to FactSet. One reason is continued growth in its advertising business and the popularity of new programming such as crime series “I Will Find You.”
Netflix will release its second quarter earnings results on Thursday. The company declined to comment for this story.
Netflix has noted that it has a low churn rate compared to competitors. The company said it has a long runway for growth, penetrating only about 5% of global TV viewing, according to a letter to shareholders in April. A number of its shows and movies appear on Nielsen’s most-watched streaming lists.
Among the company’s key priorities are broadening its entertainment offerings in areas such as live programming, games and video podcasts as well as growing its advertising business.
“A measure of our performance is engagement, which is not just the quantity of hours watched, but also the quality of that experience for our audiences,” Netflix said in its April letter, adding that its primary internal quality metric reached an all-time high in the first quarter.
“We believe we have meaningful advantages as we strive to become a must‑have service for consumers: a strong global brand, a wide range of high‑quality programming, a best‑in‑class product experience, and a frequent role at the center of culture,” Netflix said in its April letter.
Several equity analysts believe the Los Gatos-based company is still growing and remain bullish on the stock.
The last time Netflix came under major scrutiny from investors was in 2022, when it reported subscriber declines in the first quarter of that year. That pushed Netflix into pursuing other initiatives including selling cheaper subscriptions with ads, cracking down on password sharing and offering games on its service.
Last year, Netflix said it generated more than $1.5 billion in advertising and expects to roughly double that to $3 billion this year.
“We believe this is a long-term growth company,” said Jessica Reif Ehrlich, senior media and entertainment analyst at BofA Securities, who has a buy rating on the stock.
As part of its diversification, Netflix has expanded its portfolio of live programming over the years, including adding NFL games and streaming Major League Baseball’s opening day game.
But some analysts say Netflix needs to have a larger share of live sports content to draw sports fans into subscribing.
“They’re getting a lot of casual sports fans, but avid sports fans don’t need Netflix at all really, not yet,” Benes said.
Additionally, Netflix is adding new content to its platform by partnering with YouTube creators, adding video podcasts such as “The Breakfast Club” and partnering with media companies like BuzzFeed Studio to bring videos as short as three minutes to its service, which could help with viewer engagement.
“They help existing subscribers use the service more,” Benes said. “Let’s say I get in the habit of watching all these video podcasts on Netflix. It might not be the reason why I pay for it, but I might say, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I want to cancel it.’”
Some analysts think Netflix should consider other acquisitions to fuel future growth after walking away from Warner Bros. Discovery, which was scooped up by Paramount.
Comcast earlier this year announced that it plans to spin off NBCUniversal, which has properties including “Minions” and “Jurassic Park.” Some analysts speculated that Netflix could be interested in buying it.
“From our point of view, it makes a ton of sense,” Reif Ehrlich said. “Universal also has a great film and TV library. Maybe not as deep as Warner Bros., but very strong.”
Netflix executives also are considering launching live channels, including ones that are based on genres, and bundling with other streaming services, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the internal discussions.
Netflix launched TF1 live channels this year on its service in France in a partnership with media company TF1 Group. TF1 said its audience targets that were set for the 18-month horizon were achieved in less than three weeks.
When it comes to Netflix’s next move, anything is possible.
“Years ago, they said they wouldn’t get into advertising. They wouldn’t get into sports. They wouldn’t have theatrical releases,” Reif Ehrlich said, naming efforts that Netflix initially was adverse to doing before changing course . “So the business will continue to evolve and change.”
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