Tribune boots LA Times publisher

Austin Beutner

The revolving door at the Los Angeles Times, where hundreds have been laid off in recent years, has spit out another employee. This time it’s a senior one.

Times owner Tribune Publishing fired publisher Austin Beutner on Monday morning, according to multiple reports. Beutner had been on the job just over a year, since August 2014.

Beutner had taken over for Eddy Hartenstein, now a chairman on the Tribune board.

The reason he got the boot? Partly financial, of course, a common underlying cause for many newspaper dismissals these days.

The parent company was not happy with some of the expensive hires Beutner had made, such as deputy publisher Nicco Mele and marketing and communications vice president Johanna Maska.

There was also speculation that Beutner was using those hires—both former political strategists—to position himself for a run for office, perhaps as governor. Beutner is LA’s former deputy mayor.

Tribune Publishing, the newspaper arm of Tribune Co. that was spun off last year, was also unhappy with Beutner’s handling of the acquisition of the San Diego Union-Tribune, according to reports. He became the publisher of that paper after it was acquired by Tribune Publishing for $85 million.

Word is Baltimore Sun publisher Timothy E. Ryan, who has been at his post for eight years, will take over the California publisher jobs. He previously worked for The Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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