What Happened to 'LA Weekly'?

Last Wednesday, every editor and all but one writer at LA Weekly learned that they’d been fired. On Twitter, then-editor-in-chief Mara Shalhoup compared the mass layoffs at the storied alt-weekly to the “Red Wedding” on “Game of Thrones.”

Since then, controversy around the fate of the paper—and the future plans of its mystery-shrouded new ownership group—has only escalated. The political views of the new owners, an all-male klatch of largely Orange County-based investors, have sparked panic among Angelenos who suspect that the nearly-40-year-old publication’s days as a bastion of progressive news and opinion are over. A #BoycottLAWeekly campaign led by disgruntled ex-staffers has already prompted Amoeba Music, concert venues, and major restaurants to suspend advertising or pull out of an upcoming event. On Monday, a leaked internal email from LA Weekly’s sales director offered a glimpse of what appeared to be an end-of-days situation inside the paper’s offices: The suggested topics for an afternoon staff meeting included “Advertisers pulling,” “Why everyone saw this coming except you,” “Social Media—who’s [posting] and why, because this weekend was horrible and amateur,” and “Immediate future” among the issues to discuss.