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Of all the comments prompted by the firing of Austin Beutner as publisher of the Los Angeles Times, the most meaningful came from the paper’s thoughtful and talented Patt Morrison.
“Thank you, Austin, for understanding and caring about Los Angeles as an extraordinary world city, and its flagship paper as having an important civic role,” the interviewer, columnist and all around journalist wrote on Facebook. “The reason the Founding Fathers singled out ‘the press’ in the Bill of Rights is because of the vital public part it must play in order for democracy to function.”
It’s interesting that her comment and Beutner’s frank explanation of his abrupt departure appeared on Facebook. His Times e-mail account had been closed down. I hope they didn’t escort him from the building under armed guard, his possessions packed in cardboard boxes, a common corporate practice. But when it comes to Tribune Publishing, owner of the Times, nothing would surprise me.
Morrison is able to judge Beutner’s year as publisher in context. She is sharp and skeptical She was there in the paper’s great days and has toughed it out during the Times’ decline. I only talked to Beutner once, during a news conference when he was considering running for mayor. I thought he was very smart but without the gift, or curse, of bullshit needed for the political game. All I know about his tenure at the Times is second hand, much of it from shell-shocked friends awaiting the possibility of more layoffs. So I seized on Morrison’s comments as being an important message to her readers and to the community.
Morrison praised Beutner for seeing Los Angeles as a world city and for understanding the Times' role in shaping its future.
In his short tenure as publisher, Beutner has tried to do that. He wasn’t on the job long enough to be judged fairly. But his revival of the California section, with its focus on local news, was a big improvement over the past. The reporters assigned to city hall, the county building, the state capitol, transportation, the drought and other matters, are working hard in covering their beats. We old aficionados of beat coverage appreciate that. I love the newsletters Essential California and Dodgers Dugout. I thought giving letter grades to L.A. city officials was a bit superficial, but I’ll bet a lot of readers enjoyed it.
Readers, or the lack of them, were the problem Beutner couldn’t overcome in just 12 months. They keep disappearing, as does revenue. His solution was improving the digital delivery of news over the Internet, with an intense local and statewide focus. He combined this with a messianic intensity about the paper’s duty as a civic citizen.
“I agreed to become the Publisher and CEO of the Times because I believe in Los Angeles and recognize the unique role the Times plays in our community, he wrote in his Facebook farewell. “It is the civic conscience which holds accountable those with power in Los Angeles, helps celebrate what is good in our community, and provides news and information to help us better understand and engage with the world around us.”
That obviously wasn’t the view of his corporate overseers in Chicago who have always seen the Los Angeles Times as an odd, undisciplined place that had to be whipped into line. So here they come again, clueless invaders. All we readers can do is jeer their arrival and offer the greatest sympathy to the remaining journalists working for them, still dedicated, as Morrison wrote, to helping democracy function.
