New L.A. Times editor shares his vision with the newsroom

Russ Stanton told his staff that he has a deep devotion to the Los Angeles Times. He acknowledged the high rate of turnover in his new position and said as the people in the position have changed three constants have remained: "a smaller newspaper to read, a smaller newsroom to soldier on and no plans to reverse our fortunes."
But he said he took the top editor spot at The Times to break the self-defeating cycle. The strategy of fight-lose-shrink is not working, he said.
Here are some of Stanton's comments:

It is a testament to our ambition and the will of our people that, with a staff that today is one-third smaller, we are still trying to cover the same broad spectrum of topics and geography that we did five years ago. But in many areas, we are straining to do that.
We need to preserve that ambition, and focus our field of vision. There are issues and stories we need to own - local news, immigration, education, health care, the environment, entertainment in its many forms, real estate, national security, the presidential campaign, Iraq, Latin America, Asia and, of course, Dodger baseball. And there are areas that we need to walk away from.

To read Stanton's entire speech click here.