The Los Angeles Times, the major west coast newspaper of USAfounded 142 years ago, will lay off more than a fifth of its staff, in other words at least 115 journalists, the management of the title in great financial difficulty announced yesterday Tuesday.

The management of the newspaper had already announced on Thursday that “predicts layoffs” to reduce its operating costs, in the newest episode of the deep crisis that the American press is going through.

About 90 percent of the Times’ unionized workers went on strike Friday in an unprecedented protest, with several journalists calling for management to “sit down at the negotiating table” with them to “work out a buyout plan.”

“The decision (…) is painful for everyone, but it is imperative that we act quickly and take steps to build a newspaper that is sustainable and thriving for future generations,” said the title’s billionaire owner, Patrick Soon- Xiong, according to the LA Times.

Last year, the newspaper recorded loss of 30 to 40 million dollars.

The owner criticized her strikesaying he was disappointed that union representatives did not work with management to find ways to save the jobs.

For their part, the newspaper’s editors denounced the new wave of express dismissals: management “fires us during a video conference (…) without even allowing us to ask questions,” journalist Jared Cervantes via X (of formerly Twitter).

The new wave of layoffs was announced even though the newspaper had already cut 70 jobs in June.

Like many other traditional press titles, the Los Angeles Times is struggling to adapt to the new internet age. The newspaper is facing a decline in its advertising revenue and the number of its subscribers.

Meanwhile, on the U.S. East Coast, 400 unionized journalists and other workers at the Condé Nast group—which owns magazine titles such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQas well as websites – went on strike yesterday Tuesday to protest the terms of the planned redundancies of 5% of staff, in other words around 300 people.

Other media groups have also announced layoffs recently. The group that publishes the magazine Sports Illustrated announced that it would lay off most of its editorial team. Last year, staff cuts were announced by the Washington Post, public radio network NPR and the Vox Group, among others.

The press, especially in its paper form, is facing more and more difficulty in the US and its disappearance is accelerating, according to the latest annual report from the Northwestern University School of Journalism.

Over 130 newspapers were closed or acquired in 2023 in the country, or in other words 2.5 per week, according to the school text. And by the end of 2024, the US may have lost a third of its newspapers in just under twenty years.