The Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune lost “north of $50 million” of revenue in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, company executive

LA Times, San Diego Union-Tribune lost 'north of $50 million' in 2020 revenue: report

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2021-09-24 17:30:03

The Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune lost “north of $50 million” of revenue in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, company executives told staff on Thursday, The Wrap reported Thursday.

Executives at the newspapers’ California Times parent company told staff that most of the revenue losses were from print advertising, but noted that digital advertising and print circulation also took hits.

California Times President Chris Argentieri said the loss was a “catastrophic drop in revenue for the company north of $50 million on top of a business that was already using cash and not producing cash,” the Wrap reported, citing a recording of the meeting.

“What we saw in 2020, was [an] acceleration of trends that we were well aware of and have been aware of, really, for far more than a decade,” Argentieri said. “We won’t go back, particularly in print advertising, to where we were.”

At the meeting, Nancy Antoniou, the chief human resources officer for both newspapers, said the company was able to make it through COVID-19’s economic toll “far better” after making several sacrifices.