Austin Beutner’s L.A. Times Was a Blast from the Past
The Recently Ousted Publisher Sought to Turn the Paper Into a Political Institution, Which Has Long Been an American Tradition
The most important political campaign in California has died prematurely, and without a proper obituary.
That sad fact speaks volumes about the challenges facing our state’s media. Because the deceased campaign wasn’t for a Senate candidate or for a ballot measure. It was a campaign on behalf of the Los Angeles Times.
The campaign didn’t get very far. In September, Tribune Publishing, the Chicago media company that owns the L.A. Times, unceremoniously fired the campaign’s chairman, Times publisher Austin Beutner, after a year on the job. The firing of Beutner from …
