L.A. Times Accused of 'Redlining' Highland Park

The Los Angeles Times intentionally stopped delivering its Sunday magazine to "lower income and demographically minority neighborhoods" such as Highland Park in an effort to cut costs, according to a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former magazine publisher Steven Gellman.

According to Courthouse News Service, Gellman is seeking $10 million in punitive damages and $3 million in compensatory damages from Tribune Co., the Los Angeles Times and Scott Pompe, the Times' senior vice president for advertising and targeted media, alleging he was ostracized and then fired after blowing the whistle on the newspaper's redlining practices.

Gellman's lawsuit can be downloaded from the box at the right.

"Defendants made the decision to eliminate distribution of the magazine in the Sunday paper to lower-income and demographically minority neighborhoods, such as Highland Park and Compton," Gellman claims in the complaint. "Although the minority subscribers in the zip codes were not receiving the Los Angeles Times Magazine, they were still paying the same subscription price as the white affluent subscribers."

Gellman, who began working as the publisher of the Times Sunday Magazine in 2009, alleges in the lawsuit that he began receiving complaints from residents about not receiving the insert shortly after taking his post.

He claims in the complaint that his direct manager, John T. O'Loughlin, dismissed his concerns about the redlining practices.

Gellman's complaint goes on to claim that he was then subjected to personal attacks for raising concerns about the discriminatory distribution practices, and was eventually canned by the Times due to "damaged relationships, inability to manage his direct reports and poor revenue."

He asserts in the complaint that these were false grounds for termination, claiming he had received bonuses for hitting revenue targets.

In his complaint, Gellman also claims that his firing was partly due to his calling out an incident of sexual harassment by his superiors toward a female employee.

According to NELAlist, a forum for Northeast Los Angeles Residents, many subscribers believed the Sunday Magazine had been discontinued.

"I have subscribed to and enjoyed my morning Los Angeles Times for almost 50 years. I was so sorry when the Sunday magazine seemed to be discontinued from my paper, but I had assumed at the time that it was a symptom of the "times", not the Times," wrote one commenter. "It has been quite a jolt to discover that the magazine is still produced and delivered, although it seems that my neighbors, my community, and I are not deemed worthy to receive it."

Are you a subscriber to the Times? How does it feel to have been allegedly redlined? Tell us in the comments.