Los Angeles Times Forces Out Publisher Jeffrey Johnson / Jossip
After standing his ground against the Tribune Company’s attempt to cut staff members at the Los Angeles Times, publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson was forced out of the newspaper during a meeting this morning.

Tribune Publishing President Scott C. Smith was huddling with top managers at the newspaper and was expected to announce after the meeting that David Hiller, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, would immediately replace Johnson as chief executive at the 125-year-old newspaper. Hiller would become the 12th publisher of The Times.

In response to the Tribune’s decision to consider selling the company or break it up, Johnson defied executives by insisting slashes at the paper would be detrimental to the paper’s “high-quality” editorial content.

New LA Times publisher David Hiller is expected to ask top editor Dean Baquet to stay on, despite his protests against further job cuts and his qualms over selling the paper to movie producer David Geffen. No word yet on Baquat’s decision.