Alum Kevin Merida is reinventing the Los Angeles Times

COM 365: What is the state of the L.A. Times today, in terms of putting out a paper in these very challenging times for journalism?

Kevin Merida: We’re trying to reinvent what a newspaper is—get people to think about it differently. You and I came up in journalism at a certain time, when the newspaper was the primary vehicle. I’m sure it was in competition with Walter Cronkite and all of the anchors of network television, but it was the primary instrument for people to receive news and get what they needed to go about their lives, delivered to their doorstep. I delivered the newspaper as a kid—that’s how I came to journalism.

But obviously in the digital era that’s changed, and people are getting their information lots of different ways. And a news organization today has to do more things than a newspaper had to do. I still love the physical newspaper. It’s beautifully curated by human beings every day, and for those who still get it, it’s a wonderful product. But to reach the audiences that we need to reach today, and in the future, we have to be a broader, more robust thing.

COM 365: And what is that thing?

Kevin Merida: It includes the signature journalism we’ve always done and finding different ways to present it and captivate people with it and amplify it. But also to be essential to people’s lives in ways that include the 50 best places to hike in southern California and the 55 best places to listen to live music and getting a group of gifted chefs to say, here are 10 restaurants you should visit now, and also to have a wildfire map so that you can track where the wildfires are coming, an earthquake bot and a coronavirus tracker to get the latest information. And to do many things, including to produce documentaries and scripted shows and narrative podcasts with our journalism.

We have the fast break desk, which is basically bringing together two teams we had and expanding them to hop on news and trending topics. A new storytelling unit we just announced with an assistant managing editor for storytelling, a new role. To experiment with form and voice matters, because people follow not only big news organizations, they follow individuals. And so lifting voices, finding new ways to bring voice to the platforms that people are consuming, is important. That includes things like live storytelling.

A media company just has to do more than a newspaper thought it had to do, which was basically put out our work and watch people react to it.

COM 365: Tell us a bit about your roots in the business. What papers did you deliver when you were a kid? Were you one of those students whose interest in journalism was fueled by Watergate?

Kevin Merida: At different points, [I delivered] the Washington Star and the Washington Post. Growing up, the Washington Post was really what I read. It was the dominant paper at the time. I read the columns of Shirley Povich—his sports column was something that got me interested in journalism. And in the aftermath of Watergate, that’s when journalism schools were really hot. Woodward and Bernstein were big figures and had a movie made about them, with big stars. So that was a very exciting time.

It was a rich time, and in Boston a very tense time, with the aftermath of busing. I had bused in high school, so I came from one busing experience to watching the aftermath of another busing experience, as an intern at the Boston Globe during a very tense summer in Boston, 1978. And some of us helped start a Black newspaper on campus, so it was also a very robust time for student journalism. It was called BLACKFOLK. There were lots of alternative newspapers in addition to the Daily Free Press. So as a student journalist there, it was an amazing experience overall, just going to Boston University during that time.

COM 365: Diversity and representation are important everywhere, but maybe especially in journalism—and in your city. How is the Times doing on that front?

Kevin Merida: I’m proud, first of all, of the staff we have. It starts with representation, which we have to continue to increase. In Los Angeles, our city and county, close to 50 percent of the population is Latino, so that’s a very important audience and important consumers for us. It’s important to have representation, to have the people in your newsroom reflect where you live. We have one of the largest staffs of Latino journalists in the country, but we continue to try to grow that.

I’m proud that the person running the largest staff we have, Hector Becerra, grew up in East Los Angeles and is now deputy managing editor. Our sports editor, I believe, is the only Latina sports editor of a major publication in the country—Iliana Limón Romero. Our two leaders who are expanding food coverage are Latino journalists, Laurie Ochoa and Daniel Hernandez. Our head of audio is Jazmín Aguilera. You try to build a newsroom that is reflective of everybody. It makes you smarter, and we have to get smarter.

COM 365: And that’s important to attracting new readers?

Kevin Merida: We have to be more aggressive about attracting audiences that may not have come to us, that historically may have had reasons to not trust us. We’ve been having a series of community meetings. How do we actively communicate with different groups of people of all demographics? And we let them kick our tires and look under our hood and say, “This is what we think of you,” but [we] also ask, “What should we be doing?”

I’ve just been reading a couple of books about L.A. history, and I think those folks probably had pretty good reason to have distrusted the L.A. Times for a long time. I think people want to see their authentic lives represented. Everybody does, right? And that’s always part of the challenge. I think newspapers historically have sometimes struggled with that. They’re a little too distant. Sometimes we’re accused of swooping in when it’s convenient and not really getting the nuances and the dynamics of communities. We have to work on that.

COM 365: Burnout among Black journalists was on the agenda at COM’s symposium, and given the nature of many of these stories over the last few years, starting with George Floyd, I’m wondering if you’ve seen that and if you’ve had to deal with it.

Kevin Merida: I certainly won’t try to speak for all Black journalists. But let’s say this: I think George Floyd’s murder was a signature moment for the country, and it had global resonance and a big impact in workplaces everywhere, certainly in newsrooms. And I don’t think that has ended. I saw a lot of impact on Black journalists because they were asked to do so much, participating in a lot of candid conversations. And some of them were individuals that people wanted to reach out to, because some of their white colleagues wanted to know how to think about things. Some of that was really genuine and heartfelt. But it did become exhausting. Living as an individual Black person, and to also be required to talk about it and be there to hear what others had to say—there was a lot of that.

In the history of Black journalists in the country, there have always been these moments. And all those who came before—you can kind of lean on that. I would give credit to the Black press covering the civil rights movement, and in the segregated times and under really challenging environments and under death threats. So you have this continuum. And now you have a lot of people today who continue to move the industry. You used the term burnout, but there’s also a lot of acceleration, excitement. I see a lot of young, promising, hungry journalists coming to our profession and really making an impact. And it’s encouraging to me because the talent level is great.