“It’s a difficult time, but covering communities close to the ground is just as important.”
Terry Tang, the first female Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Times in its 143-year history, said that the newspaper’s values will shine through in tough times.
“I would like to congratulate the Korea Daily for 50 years of serving the Korean-American community,” Tang said in an interview at the newspaper’s El Segundo headquarters, “and I hope that it will continue to fulfill its mission as a local media and to build that trust with the Korean-American community.”
Since the beginning of this year, the LA Times has been exchanging coverage across language and cultural barriers through a content licensing agreement with the Korea Daily. The Korea Daily is the first Korean-American media organization to sign a content agreement with the LA Times.
“The Los Angeles Times does a lot of coverage, but that doesn’t mean we can cover every community,” she said. ”The smaller media is just as important because they’re covering communities that are very close to the ground.”
Tang said it’s “wonderful” to see the LA Times’ reporting reach the readers of the Korea Daily every week through the content exchange. “It’s wonderful to see that sharing of our content, and it’s an honor to get our journalism to the Korea Daily’s readers,” she said. “I hope to see more collaborations in additional kinds of elements through the partnerships.”
When asked about the LA Times’ coverage and reporting standards as a publication that has a great influence in California and across the country, Tang said it’s an age-old question. “It should be the same for the Korea Daily, but editors deal with this hour by hour. Our guiding principle is we want to bring truthful information and news to our readers. We are making decisions by the hour and we know how to make those decisions because we’ve been in this profession for a long time and we know how to deliver news to our readers.”
As for the current state of small media, which has been hit hard by a tough economy and people’s lives, she urged caution against pessimism, saying “You know, the challenges for journalists have always been around, just different types.”
“All of society has changed in the way they consume information and news. We’re serving people in many different ways. My job is to make our journalism continue to address the needs of our readers and to provide them not just news but any other kinds of coverage including entertainment.”
As the first female Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Times, Tang is the first minority journalist to hold the position, having worked at both the East and West Coast publications of the Times.
She immigrated to the United States from Taiwan at age 6, grew up in Gardena, attended Yale and New York University Law School, and began her journalism career at Seattle Weekly. She later became a columnist for the Seattle Times and worked for the New York Times for 20 years. She was the Editor of Metro Desk, Editor at Room For Debate, Opinion Editor, and Editorial Page Editor. She joined the Los Angeles Times in 2019, rising through the ranks to become the Editorial Director and then Executive Editor.
BY BRIAN CHOI [ichoi@koreadaily.com]
