Julia Turner

Los Angeles, California · Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder, L.A. Material

Career

Julia Turner is editor-in-chief of L.A. Material. She has been leading newsrooms for nearly twenty years across both national magazines and metropolitan newspapers, with experience spanning editorial strategy, digital transformation, podcasting, and membership-based business models.

Before L.A. Material, Turner served as editor-in-chief of Slate, where she led the publication through a significant period of growth in podcasting — Slate's podcast network, which includes Political Gabfest, Culture Gabfest, and Slow Burn, became one of the most-listened-to publisher podcast operations in the United States during her tenure — and in membership and subscription revenue. She subsequently moved to the Los Angeles Times, where she worked on entertainment coverage, digital strategy, and business development, giving her direct experience in the institutional pressures and editorial challenges of one of the major metropolitan newspapers that L.A. Material was, in part, founded to supplement.

The teams Turner has led have won the Pulitzer Prize, the George Polk Award, National Magazine Awards, and Online Journalism Awards. She serves on the board of the American Society of Magazine Editors. Her founding of L.A. Material follows a period in which the Los Angeles Times cut roughly half its newsroom in early 2024 and LAist ceased editorial operations, removing substantial local journalism capacity from a city of four million people and a metropolitan area of thirteen million.

Prior Roles

L.A. Material

Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder (2026–present) · co-founded with Julia Wick, Sarah Wick, and Hayes Davenport

Los Angeles Times

Digital strategy, entertainment coverage, and business development (prior role) · direct experience of the Times's newsroom reductions and digital transition

Slate

Editor-in-Chief (prior role) · led growth of Slate's podcast network and membership model · nearly twenty years of newsroom leadership overall

Recognition

Multiple years

Pulitzer Prize · George Polk Award · National Magazine Awards · Online Journalism Awards

Won by teams Turner has led across her career at Slate and the Los Angeles Times.

Current

Board member — American Society of Magazine Editors

ASME is the professional organization for editors at print and digital magazines and news sites in the United States.

Julia Turner · Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder, L.A. Material

L.A. Material: lamaterial.com · lamaterial.com/team