ROSS STEPS ASIDE
Sex-harassment probe hits LA Times publisher
Embattled Los Angeles Times Publisher Ross Levinsohn is taking a voluntary leave of absence in the wake of a report that there were sexual-harassment complaints lodged against him at his previous employers.
Justin Dearborn, chief executive of LA Times parent, Tronc, announced Friday that Levinsohn would be temporarily stepping aside — one day after the company launched an internal probe of the matter.
In addition, Tronc has retained the Sidley Austin law firm to look into the claims first reported by NPR, Dearborn said.
Levinsohn’s leave is effective immediately, Dearborn said.
Meanwhile, the union representing the journalists at the LA Times — which only became certified on Friday — had called for him to“resign or be fired immediately” following the NPR report.
The NPR article said he operated a “frat boy” environment across two decades as a top executive in the media world and that in two instances he was named as a defen- dant in sexual-harassment lawsuits.
In the NPR article, Levinsohn insisted the allegations were not true.
The executive had just been hired as publisher in August, after serving as a high-priced consultant to Tronc. It was Levinsohn who recruited former Forbes Chief Product Officer Lewis D’Vorkin to serve as the paper’s new editor-in-chief.
The pair were said to be preparing a round of cuts and restructurings to make the company more digitally focused, with a smaller news staff. The plans were delayed following the start of the newsroom’s union orga- nizing process in October.
Dearborn said that Deputy Publisher Mickie Rosen would step in for Levinsohn, and that the newsroom would be continue to be led by D’Vorkin.
On the union front, employees, for the first time in the paper’s 136-year history, voted to be represented by a union, it was announced on Friday.
The vote was 284-44 in favor of joining the News Guild — Communications Workers of America, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which tallied the votes.