Journalists, readers and celebrities are calling for a boycott of LA Weekly after most of its editorial staff was fired last week following a change of media organization’s ownership.
According to a tweet by the magazine, which has now been deleted, the media organization will now depend on unpaid contributors for its content — not paid editorial staff. LA Weekly called for submissions over the weekend on Twitter. Here’s a photo of the initial tweet:
Many have expressed worry over the paper’s new conservative ownership. Brian Calle, who is now running LA Weekly, told the LA Times on Friday that the key to making the the media organization relevant again is a “strong editing team,” which, according to him, is three or four editors. Five editors were laid off last week.
Steve Mehr, an attorney and new partial owner of the newspaper, called LA Weekly’s previous coverage “superficial.”
Former music editor Katie Bain called out Mehr’s observation as ironic in a tweet: “which, you know, will be really easy to do when you’re not giving your writers any f—ing money.”
She also pointed out that the former editorial team at LA Weekly was nominated for 21 LA Press Club Awards this year alone. And the newspaper brought home at least two National Arts & Entertainment Journnalism Awards from the West Coast press association on Sunday. The LA Press Club previously tweeted condolences to the paper, and at Sunday’s awards show, ignited a round of applause in honor of LA Weekly staffers in attendance.
We are deeply saddened by what's happened to the LA Weekly staff. The paper has been providing quality journalism over and over again, winning numerous LAPC awards. Our thoughts are with Mara and her team. https://t.co/yzHhKJOd3A
— LA Press Club (@LAPressClub) December 1, 2017
“Let’s see how many nominations the Weekly’s new crack team of unpaid journalists can round up,” Bain said.
And in terms of that "superficial coverage," let me just remind everyone that the @LAPressClub awards are tomorrow and LA Weekly is 21 times. 21. Let's see how many nominations the Weekly's new crack team of unpaid journalists can round up.
— Katie Bain (@bainofyrexstnce) December 2, 2017
Music columnist Henry Rollins announced on Twitter that he is leaving the magazine.
Filmmaker and former film critic April Wolfe pointed out that Calle used to work at the Claremont Institute, whose mission statement includes “principles that will be necessary to defeat progressivism.”
https://twitter.com/AWolfeful/status/937133173342855169
Please RT to let the new @LAWeekly owners and their public face @briancalle know that the city of Los Angeles will not tolerate their attempts to destroy one of its most important civic institutions. #BoycottLAWeekly pic.twitter.com/FaCRXMORVz
— Otto Von Biz Markie (@Passionweiss) December 3, 2017
Ava DuVernay retweeted a call for a boycott, saying that the only cover story about herself that brought her to tears was written by April Wolfe for LA Weekly. “It’s a beautiful voice. Let’s keep it alive,” she said.
LA WEEKLY provided a passionate view of the city I love for as long as I can remember. Personally, the only cover story about myself that's ever brought me to tears was written by @AWolfeful for the publication. It's a beautiful voice. Let's keep it alive. https://t.co/N7tfbClEGa
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) December 3, 2017
See more reactions to LA Weekly’s new ownership below.
The lies & cliches are so staggering and crude you'd think they came from the Trump White House. A cabal of crypto-fascist Libertarians from OC fired everyone without warning, no transition team & no explanation. This is a joke. This is the White Walker LA Weekly. https://t.co/IWwr3ySvbl
— Otto Von Biz Markie (@Passionweiss) December 1, 2017
RIP LA Weekly. This sucks and every newspaper in the country should take notice of what happened here https://t.co/FC0SlvfyP7
— Ike Barinholtz (@ikebarinholtz) December 3, 2017
#LAWeekly fired their staff in favor of unpaid “contributors.” If you are an aspiring writer, and you submit to them, you are insuring it becomes impossible to make a living in this field. pic.twitter.com/y4Cuanjye8
— Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright) December 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/elcush/status/936820334530936832
https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/936057552038694912
https://twitter.com/SpikeFriedman/status/936494790127919109
https://twitter.com/JBRylah/status/937053078192140289
Screenshots live forever @LAWeekly. Just a cute reminder that they couldn't even spell "Angeleno" right — y'know the people whose free labor they were trying to exploit. You're doing a wonderful job, @briancalle. Keep it up. pic.twitter.com/uk1QE81y3p
— Otto Von Biz Markie (@Passionweiss) December 2, 2017
https://twitter.com/JBRylah/status/936028207018516480