L.A. Material

Los Angeles, California · Founded 2026 · Independent for-profit digital newsroom

Overview

L.A. Material is an independent, for-profit digital newsroom covering Los Angeles. Founded in 2026 by four co-founders — Julia Turner, Julia Wick, Sarah Wick, and Hayes Davenport — its editorial staff includes two Pulitzer Prize winners and veterans of the Los Angeles Times, LAist, Slate, BuzzFeed News, and Crooked Media. It covers Los Angeles politics, power, culture, and civic affairs through newsletters, longform stories, podcasts, and video. It is privately held by its founders, founding employees, and a small group of individual investors described on its About page as "friends, family and community members who care about the future of journalism and about Los Angeles."

L.A. Material launched against the backdrop of a sustained collapse in Los Angeles local news infrastructure, punctuated by major layoffs at the Los Angeles Times (which cut roughly half its newsroom in early 2024), the closure of LAist's editorial operation, and the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton wildfires, which strained the remaining local journalism capacity and demonstrated acutely what the departure of experienced local reporters means for a city during a crisis. Its four co-founders each bring direct experience in the Los Angeles media landscape — two are former L.A. Times journalists, one is a former LAist editor-in-chief, and one is a former Slate editor-in-chief who subsequently worked in digital strategy at the L.A. Times.

Co-Founders and Key Staff

Julia Turner

Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder

Former editor-in-chief, Slate; former digital strategy and entertainment coverage lead, Los Angeles Times. Teams she has led have won the Pulitzer Prize, Polk Award, National Magazine Awards, and Online Journalism Awards. Serves on the board of the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Julia Wick

Editorial Director and Co-Founder

Former reporter, Los Angeles Times — part of the team that won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News for reporting on the leaked L.A. City Council tape recording. Former editor-in-chief, LAist.

Sarah Wick

CEO and Co-Founder

Former COO, Crooked Media (six years); former General Manager, Disney Interactive digital gaming vertical. Sister of Julia Wick.

Hayes Davenport

Creative Director and Co-Founder

Former TV writer/producer (Family Guy, Eastbound & Down); host, Hollywood Handbook podcast (10+ years); former senior advisor to L.A. City Councilmember Nithya Raman; co-founder of a neighborhood homeless services nonprofit. Not involved in L.A. Material coverage of Raman or her mayoral race.

Jessica Garrison

Editor

Former senior investigations editor, BuzzFeed News; former reporter, L.A. Times. Awards include the Pulitzer Prize and the George Polk Award. Author of The Devil's Harvest (criminal justice, San Joaquin Valley). Co-host of The Michigan Plot podcast.

Matt Hamilton

Senior Reporter

Won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for uncovering sexual abuse by a USC doctor (with colleagues) — a series that led to $1.2B+ in settlements and criminal charges. Won the 2023 Collier Prize for Government Accountability for reporting on California State Bar failures. Former L.A. Times reporter.

Antonia Cereijido

Senior Reporter

Former host, LAist's Imperfect Paradise; covered the Palisades and Eaton fires, L.A. ICE protests, and the L.A. City Council tape scandal (Livingston Award finalist). Former producer, Futuro Media — NPR's Latino USA and Anything for Selena. Northwestern University graduate.

Anna Holmes

Contributing Editor

Writer; contributing writer at The Atlantic; has published in The New Yorker, Slate, and the New York Times. The Power of No (Crown) forthcoming.

Pablo Goldstein

Creative Producer

Written for Vulture, The Cut, McSweeney's. Produced Netflix's John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in L.A., Amazon's Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, and others. National Hispanic Media Coalition TV Series Scriptwriters Fellow. Born and raised in Los Angeles.

Tomo Chien

Reporter

USC senior; author of Morning, Trojan newsletter. Former reporter, The San Francisco Standard.

Editorial Model and Independence

L.A. Material describes itself as non-partisan and reader-supported. It is a for-profit company — a structure its founders have chosen explicitly, describing sustainability as integral to press freedom: "The press isn't really free until it can pay its own way." Revenue comes primarily from reader subscriptions; the operation also relies on a small investor base that, per the About page, has no editorial role. The organization maintains a stated policy of strict separation between funding and coverage: investors and business partners do not preview, approve, or veto journalism, and disclosures are made when a story involves an investor or business partner.

Its editorial focus on Los Angeles politics and power sits in a market that, by 2026, had lost substantial investigative and civic journalism capacity through the decimation of the L.A. Times newsroom, the closure of LAist as an editorial operation, and the pressures on smaller outlets. L.A. Material's co-founders are drawn largely from the institutions most affected by these changes, and the publication's founding rationale is explicitly a response to the gap those changes created. Its coverage of the 2025 fires and ongoing coverage of L.A. housing, policing, and political accountability reflect the beats where the loss of legacy newsroom capacity has been most acutely felt.

L.A. Material · lamaterial.com

Editor-in-Chief: Julia Turner · Editorial Director: Julia Wick · CEO: Sarah Wick