L.A. Times to lay off at least 20% in the newsroom

Seems inevitable. Newspapers no longer have a business model that works. Even the "savvy" ones are overly reliant on display ads ... and display ads are getting less and less desirable to advertisers vs other modes of marketing (such as paid placement in the content of influencers).

Newspapers have to evolve and evolve quickly to survive. Unfortunately, the type of people that have grown into leadership positions within newspapers and the type of people that work in newsrooms, are typically not the kinds of people that can evolve (or even think evolution or change is desirable).

Take the typical hostile reaction of mainstream journalists towards any new tech development out of silicon valley. Will that breed of skeptic be able to move fast and find a new model that works?

I think the last gasps of the existing media behemoths will come not with them innovating, but with them going to Washington DC and trying to legislate their existence back into relevancy via various attempts to break the open internet.