LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Times has hired Kevin Merida, most recently head of ESPN's race-culture-and-sports website The Undefeated, to serve as its next executive editor, betting on a veteran newsman with multimedia experience to help usher the beleaguered paper into the digital era.
The news, announced Monday by the paper’s owners, Dr. Patrick and Michele Soon-Shiong, caps a five-month search for the paper's next leader. Norman Pearlstine stepped down from that role in December.
"We are elated to welcome Kevin to the Los Angeles Times," the Soon-Shiongs said in a statement. "Kevin possesses a clear understanding of the rigor necessary for independent journalism and how to translate that journalism to multiple platforms. He also shares our passion for the unique opportunity we have to build the L.A. Times into a media enterprise with a distinct West Coast point of view.”
Merida, 64, has spent more than three decades in newspaper journalism, including 22 years at The Washington Post. He joined ESPN in 2015, where he served as senior vice president and editor of The Undefeated.
"I am excited to be the next executive editor of the L.A. Times, and will bring with me an open heart, a penchant for experimentation and a fiercely competitive spirit," Merida said in a statement. "Looking forward to partnering with new colleagues and soaring to greater heights together.”
The Media Guild of the West, the union that represents several Los Angeles Times journalists, also celebrated Merida's hire and said it was looking forward "to meeting with Kevin soon to hear his vision for the continued restoration of The Times."
The hiring of Merida is seen as something of a coup for the Times, which has struggled to compete with the likes of the Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, despite being the hometown paper for the nation's most populous county and second-most-populous city.
Some of that can be credited to years of mismanagement under Tribune Publishing. The Soon-Shiongs bought the paper from Tribune in 2018. But even since then, the paper has been embroiled in scandals and controversy over issues ranging from racism within its ranks to ethical violations in its pages.
Merida commands respect from colleagues across the news industry, and two people with knowledge of the situation said he was also in contention for the executive editor role at The Washington Post, which has yet to name a successor to its former executive editor Marty Baron.
