How a high-flying media executive with a $1 million annual paycheck and big plans to revamp the LA Times found himself out of a job after 5 months

Paul Sakuma/AP; Kevork Djansezian/AP; Business Insider

Ross Levinsohn

A year ago, Los Angeles Times publisher and CEO Ross Levinsohn was put on unpaid leave after the publication of an NPR article accusing him of "frat-house behavior" earlier in his career.

He'd been hired to turn around one of the US's leading daily newspapers, but after he left that plan was abandoned and Tribune Publishing sold the paper.

Ultimately, the NPR article was the final straw in a series of events that culminated in Levinsohn's downfall as publisher.

His story is also significant because it combines a few of the big media stories of the past two years: The decline of traditional news organizations, the unionization of a newsroom, and the fallout from #MeToo-type claims.

Business Insider examined those events in an in-depth article published today. We also published a separate Q&A with Levinsohn, in which he speaks on the record for the first time about NPR's reporting and its aftermath.

Subscribe to BI Prime to read our stories:

• How a high-flying media executive with a $1 million annual paycheck and big plans to revamp the LA Times found himself out of a job after 5 months

• Media executive Ross Levinsohn speaks for the first time about a #MeToo exposé, says it 'weaponized' the movement against him