Los Angeles Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida | Full Interview | Code 2021

[Music] oh yes yes indeed so yeah first things first man how did you come to be in los angeles i mean both in terms of you know the location you know but also you know at the times you know considering the you know journalistic tradition you come from of it was uh to be honest my three-year-old grandson on on on facebook live and i mean on you know facetime stuff saying pop-pop when you're coming but um no it's it's you know coming from the undefeated you know we we built something you know essentially a startup inside a big company espn uh with the mandate to focus on race sports and culture but we really it was really like an experimental lab an ongoing experiment where we were trying things i mean we did you know two best-selling children's book we did poetry original music comedy um you know we we turned our sight purple and honor prince you know death uh you know we just we just did things and it was just this sense of empowerment of of just you know experimenting and trying things and building things you know sports is is a great window in into the world and into into to human beings really because sports is a connector uh sports has everything but then there's culture and and we fuse that and and i just think like this the past five years as we were building the undefeated it really made me think about what could i how could i take the uh patrick sunshine you know when i started talking to him about coming to the la times was like what could i take from where i had been what we had done and apply it to uh a newspaper and that's where that's where i started that's how i ultimately came to to be here got you i mean yeah i also come from a sports background and i feel like it helped prepare me to cover politics it helped prepare me to cover culture in a way i think that you know other you know areas of coverage maybe don't necessarily prepare you to be as versatile did you start doing that before when you were at the post or were you you know in sports before that you know i always flirted with sports i uh i did some writing and some profiles and i was always interested in sports uh certainly i was managing editor i over saw sports was one of the things i oversaw and so you know sports has always been uh you know close to me it's really how i got into journalism i'm gonna be honest i mean reading the sports pages many years ago shirley povich when i was just a kid the great late shirley povich and that was my first like entree to the newspaper into journalism same here my mother will always say you know would you please put the sports page down and finish your homework and now i get to tell her that i'd actually paid off so what i want to ask you is specific uh specifically about newspapers i mean was it particularly important to come back to your newspaper roots in taking this job is this something you weren't looking to do no i'd be honest i i wasn't looking to do anything but but really building the undefeated you know and we really are building across the walt disney company and and and really trying to build a global brand i was having a lot of fun um it was really in conversation with with patrick and michelle and and his daughter nika and what they wanted to do with the los angeles times and you know this is the the biggest newsroom west of the potomac you know the newspapers we think of now and that you know the new york times and and the big national papers the washington post where i used to work wall street they're anchored on the east coast you know california you know i think in in many ways it's it's the most interesting and arguably the most important state in the country and and you know i keep coming back to something when i was on vacation and there was uh this you know there's a woman i met in mexico who was running a non-profit in san francisco and and she said to me you know i come to think of los angeles uh it's it's to the 21st century with new york was to the 20th century it's a place where everybody comes it's where you can look at where the country's going and if you were going to think about taking the newspaper job and and reinventing and experimenting and you just wanted to pick a place on a map i don't think you could pick a better place than los angeles yeah i know you mentioned that at the texas tribune festival just last week you know what kind of experiments maybe you think may would be particular to this city that you could do in you know a newspaper environment well it's it's great that this is kind of the home of of entertainment you know this is we're at the epicenter of entertainment and and and the streaming wars and there's so many great like content creators here uh doing so many amazing things and and so you're you're here and the chance to me to to to potentially work with other people to bring people into the los angeles times ecosystem to do more with with all of the great journalism that we already do right at the la times um you know whether that's more experimenting in audio uh docuseries scripted but uh digital shows all kinds of things i think that that here's a you know that that's what i'm looking forward to right and that is where we get to the point where we talk about how does technology help you you know do this reinvention that you've talked about of the la times um how do you you know take this underdog paper you know which seems weird because it's in los angeles but it's underdog using technology you know i don't i don't mind using the term underdog because it you know gives you a little extra you know incentive fuels your competitive juices um but i but i think man i look at the staff we have and we have some of the greatest journalists in the world you know and i look at you know you kind of look like man this roster is tremendous um and so there's a lot of things we do but look i think that um you know one of the things about the the platforms and the accessibility to uh our work is that you know we can we can create on those platforms you know we can we can take the things we do and and and and we're gonna expand what we do in the social content creation uh area we're gonna we're gonna do try to reach people where they are uh i i'm really a big fan of doing things live and i know it's it's uh you know i love being here actually and you know um and i know covet has some a lot of restrictions but you know going to where people are you know showing up in their neighborhoods uh you know sponsoring concerts or block parties uh bringing reporters to to engage with uh in communities where we may not need a fresh look or people haven't given us a chance right and so um you know i think there's a lot of ways to just just create and i think it's about a mindset right i think you know to think that well what can we do today you know what can we do different how can we challenge ourselves journalism is really good at interrogating everybody else and we do some tremendous investigations and yeah and we hold people accountable which we should and but we also can use that skill to interrogate ourselves like what could we do different what could we do better and speaking of which how can you do anything better within the l.a times i mean there's a culture there you know with you know there's issues i guess you know that have been reported uh throughout the i guess the last decade and how do you take that and and do something new with it look i mean i i think the most important thing is always with with cultures to build motivation i mean we all um have individual lives right i mean work is not our only thing you know it's not all of who we are right and and and people have have struggled in their lives uh they have individual personalities and i think it's important to kind of use all of that you know um i think about building motivation and and finding ways to motivate people i'm always thinking about that how can we get people excited about their work uh so they can be happy you know and if we can get them you know happier in in their non-work then then maybe they're more productive in their work you know so there's just ways of uh um i i also think that motivation and in building that sense of of of team work and that we're all in this together is is is really important to that um process i mean we do i think we have to be essential uh to to grow uh the l.a times being essential in people's lives and we do a lot of essential things i mean during covet tremendous covert tracker right let you know everything you want to know and the la times you know they built a tremendous one or we had an earthquake not long ago we have a quake bot you know let you contract earthquakes in in real time or a wildfires map you know so there's there's lots of things that that we're in the space of building things you know we're in the tech world too because we have you know we got product designers and and we're we're building things and creating things so any of those things you can mention or i just mentioned three you know no no anything well i you know i'm not gonna give out any trade secrets of things that we're working on but but uh i think that that we're we're constantly thinking about like what can we do to take our work and to get it to audiences in new ways and to get it to new audiences that may think man i didn't know if we put out if we put out the the soundtrack of los angeles and we created that and we found the the best group of musicians from different neighborhoods we put that together people probably not thinking la times is doing it but but as a citizen of this community we could do that and and those are the kind of things we probably will do now of course at the heart of that he's talking about being becoming essential how in this era do you get people to subscribe to a product that's primarily digital and that sometimes that they don't even have access to well i you know it's a very complex thing part of it is giving him finding multiple entry points so that people can can access you in different ways i mean look but but it's also look we we just had a um you know promotion campaign uh the la times a dollar for six months there you go that should get people's attention a dollar uh really i mean and that's about as accessible as you can get you know to subscribe you give us a chance to try it out see if you like it uh and and i think that's you know we have tremendous reporting and you you constantly whether uh it's about in the entertainment area or or the homelessness crisis here in in los angeles uh you know we we bring you original work original reporting that um no one else is doing you know how has tech in your time you know changed news gathering you know even changed what newspapers have become and what they're for well look i i i think it's no secret right and certainly no secret to people here uh at this conference that uh it has changed how we we get information the gateway to our work and and we're um we're connected to all the the big tech platforms i mean uh you know all of them is that's how people get their information and and we're part of of putting our information on those big platforms you know now it has had certainly a a big change in shift in the the advertising revenue uh dynamic certainly and it's hurt newspapers in a lot of ways uh local newspapers particularly i think that's something like 150 have uh left you know um in the last decade uh just in california you know and and so that's that's an issue it's an issue for local communities because local communities need you know local coverage in their communities and and original reporting dramatic uh impact but on on the positive side of it right there it's it's created this ability for us to extend our work all over the world right and anybody can access an l.a time story and so that's a that's a good thing um brings to mind something i thought about with regard to you coming from the undefeated where you're you know if not primarily serving at least reflecting through the lens of underserved communities um that mandate now that you are you know of course you know in charge of all the beats at la in the l.a times in a city this diverse how do you see you know the mandate to make sure that underserved communities not just you know have access to this but are you know participating in what you're doing well i i think that's a a great news organization um you know make sure that you cover all the communities and have relationships i think it's important to have relationships in with communities that go beyond simply you uh plopping in there and writing your stories and leaving you know um to to do events to to be present to to maybe start you know we've talked a lot about community journalism program um i was really i'm on the the pulitzer prize board i was really proud that we honored uh the young women in minneapolis who had uh you know the the courage to train her um video her camera yes you know a phone camera on um the george floyd killing and capture that and and we honor her with a special push of citation but i think about not just the stories that that are uh tell the the tragedies but but the life the joy you know that there's there's a lot of people documenting their neighborhoods and in ways in in real time and and some of that we should link up with some and and bring it to to to our own readers and i just think that there's there's a lot we can do you know civically bringing people together connecting people that that is uh in addition to our role as a journalistic institution it's funny you mentioned you know what happened in minneapolis i feel like you know if everyone has a phone in their hands uh everyone can at least be a media maker if not necessarily a journalist you know with that accessibility is it tougher for us to you know maintain you know that sort of separation between what we do and you know what anyone can do man there's not a lot of people can do what you do right like thank you you know your your work i mean you when you go out original reporting it is it is a craft i mean journalism is still a craft it has has rules and values and principles of affairs lots of people look at it and it's edited it's curated it's a and and to get information particularly things that sometimes people don't want you to know uh public record searches there's a lot that goes into it it's it's a practice craft it's learned craft and so um some of the reporting that you need journalism training you know to do that reporting now there's a there there has been a democratization in some ways of of just content creation and i i applaud that right there a lot of people are out there you can start your own site you can you can open up a uh a site put your own video out you could you could just focus on sneakers you know you could you can do whatever you want and i i think that's a great thing but but what we do at the major news organizations uh some of that is not done anywhere else you know we had a tremendous um photojournalist foreign correspondent marcus yam you know was in afghanistan he's done just done some did some tremendous work uh both through the the prism of this camera but also on the ground reporting and and you know they're not a lot of people doing that work right i want to also remind everyone here that if you have questions we're going to have about five minutes at the end of q a so now will be time to you know think of what you might want to ask kevin and you know get ready to ask that in a few minutes um i do want to make sure i ask you about obviously the effect of covert 19 on what you're doing um you know of course you know there's a physical news room still technically but you know how many people right now at the times are going in yeah well we had a a small sample uh of coming in you know of regulars who were coming on a volunteer basis uh under our protocol so very small uh population and we're trying it to see how that uh worked has worked so so far so well it's it's not a but i i gotta tell you i i love just being in there i've been coming in two or three times a week uh i'm new so uh i have some organic conversations even with massed up with reporters there and and others and so it's been a great thing but it it has changed the dynamic of reporting you know and you know well i i talked to just simply uh one of the top crime reporters you know that that exists not only our place but in the country richard wynton we were just having coffee and and he's a tremendous you know journalist many many years covered many big crime stories just talking about that the phone you know having to do so much of that work on phone and and not being able to to move effortlessly and have those connections and knock on doors and do the things that you normally just reporters that's that's changed just kind of the the dynamic of of reporting and yet you know we're publishing every day you know we're we're publishing and managing to do that work because you know journalism has always been a a very resourceful and resilient craft but but the personal dimension is is also very important right because it's taught us a lot of things about the vulnerability of of human beings and that you know we think we conquer everything right flying to the moon and we can we got private spacecraft now uh and and all kinds of things but but you know we we this really threw us before a loop and it it in a good way it helped us connect with our family some more uh is that it blew up the myth that you got to fly all the way across the country with dozens of people in a meet for a meeting and and there are a lot of things that we learn about ourselves and and some of it has been difficult and it's been a struggle for a lot of people there's been depression uh but but there there have been some great things that came out of it as well about that we learned a lot about each other but it's a certainly a challenge now of course you know before all this you know we now have tech that's helping us do our jobs obviously we're on zoom all the time we're on slack all the time but you know tech can also get in the way of what we do and you know i think back to you know a few years back when you know those uh artificial algorithms on facebook you know sparked the whole pivot to video trend that ended up you know with a lot of journalists losing jobs um how do you see nowadays tech and journalism making peace look there there certainly has to be you know a partnership maybe we we utilize the the platforms to get our work out um you know there's certainly been uh efforts to to get more fairly compensated you know there's legislation in congress uh you know uh the journalism competition preservation act i think it's called the to try to to see if uh you know news um organizations uh can you know negotiate with the tech companies for fair compensation right um but but i think you know we we both use the platforms and and i know it's sometimes challenging for for news organizations and but but we're here now you know and that and and we have to to to live with each other um in terms of uh you know facebook and things like that do you feel like they're publishers i mean and if so you know you know what kind of ethics do they need to abide by well i think as they themselves have seen and you know they're about a lot of of challenges of misinformation i mean that's a a major problem in our country and and and there has to be responsibility same kind of responsibility we we take you know at places like the los angeles times to to to make sure stories are vetted and checked out and and double proofed and you know media literacy is also an area i mean that's they can join in that effort um you know to really educate a population that didn't may not have grown up with newspapers dropped in the door and and and make these differentiations because we have a lot of uh misinformation diff disinformation and that's harmful to the larger society and of course i mean part of that you know people not growing up with that you know newspaper on the front step maybe we've seen a lot of diminishing local media especially during this pandemic how what kind of effect do you feel like that has had and also how does that you know affect your job well look i i think no one should applaud the you know and everybody should be alarmed about how much local meet we have i i think there have been some good efforts around the country right places that uh where people are trying to rev up with new models of uh creating local media in non-profits and and other uh models and i think that's a good thing i mean i think i think we i think the more um news organizations there are out there that's that's good for us as as a society um if anyone has any questions now is the time that you would like you to uh just line up with one of the microphones um meantime you know we'll just keep talking um i just want to also it's very curious to know about um the podcast world audio world how do you experiment you mean obviously that's a technological you know innovation um how do you experiment using audio when you know frankly l.a times has already been kind of a leader in the game well look we we were early right uh certainly a narrative chris gopper dirty john you know tremendous you know shawnee hilton who you know is really the first appointment she's managing editor of new initiatives now she's overseeing you know video uh and audio and and also uh helping us think about experiment developing strategy i think the audience is built up now right for for podcasts and and now to me i always look at that as a good thing we're we're we are um just building uh our our footprint and i think there's a lot of room to to to to try to do new kinds of podcasts and with new voices and and so stay tuned there all right so let's go to our first question and uh if everyone can keep it brief and concise as we're running up a little bit against it yes hi my name is alyssa bushnell um i know one of the themes that we've heard at this conference a lot is like this crisis of trust and how do you establish as a leading news organization that you are um and i really appreciate the work that you've done in california in particular being a california resident in northern california i'm still a subscriber of the la times due to the fact that you cover news of all of california and i appreciate that thank you thank you but how do you establish that trust and how do you prioritize it and how do you communicate that in today's culture of disinformation you know i i think it's important to be transparent you know i i i think we have to communicate more with our reason let them know more about what we are doing i mean we don't get everything right right we we struggle it's really hard to to be i i look at when you're in journalism you you do your work in public and sometimes you do it really fast you know you don't have all the information you publish and it's a little bit like sports except sports the games are scheduled you know and you have a big shooting or a wildfire or something that that people want to know about and people sometimes leave their dinner tables and they go do this and we put it together fast you know i i think where it comes to things that and you know we get feedback and people say well look at the language you use here look at the headline and and sometimes it's just human error it's not intentional it's not it's not a diabolical plot but we have to we part of trust is we we have to communicate back not just with our stories we have to tell people look we looked at our guidelines on crime coverage or something and this is what we came up with about language about sourcing and about increasing diversity of of subjects and who gets to comment on topics we have to communicate that back and let people know that we we're evolving we listen to people and and we're trying to get better and i i think that goes a long way with trust more communication indeed thank you for your question all right well if there's oh we got one more yes yes sir just tell us who you are please nadi i'm uh trevor andrett from vox nice to meet you um so uh it's cool that uh you know you have the sports background coming to la times you all have a bunch of uh big teams here uh you know there's a saying in our business every night's election night you know in the sports department um are there going to be some cool new things that you're going to be doing with l.a times and in the sports page and and really like bringing that to life in the digital space i mean you talked about some of these data projects that happen around wildfires and earthquakes but y'all's data team is also y'all got ben welsh on your team who's yeah you know big sports fan big baseball fan what do you got planned wow i mean look we got the super bowl coming up we were just having a big meeting of lots of things we can do around the super bowl we we just had a great video series around fernando mania you know the the video team did that took a look back at uh fernando valenzuela um i i think that with chris stone and our executive sports editor and ileana limon it's it's it's certainly uh they're they're constantly thinking of new ways to reach audiences with documentary series and and ways in which we can certainly take advantage of our talent you know we have some tremendous journalists that could get reach in in different ways we you know you know one of the things i've been thinking about just as you know for nothing the mannings were doing their mega cash and they're just watching the game but i think we can do that with some of our writers you know watching the game and and commenting on the lakers and and clippers so i just think that there are there were things that we can do to take advantage of our expertise and bring it to the audience that's there for sports in new ways all right well thank you uh out of time thank you very much for being here again uh los angeles times executive editor kevin murray meredith yes thank you you

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Id: K3RZNUV7P1c

Length: 30min 16sec (1816 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 04 2021