Kimi Yoshino is an award-winning writer, editor and reporter. Yoshino began working for the Los Angeles Times in 2000, helped develop their most popular blog, L.A. Now, then became their editor of Business and Finance in 2014. Yoshino has reported on unethical fertility practices at the University of California Irvine, dangerous Disneyland rides, and poor construction near seismic fault lines in Los Angeles. Yoshino was the guiding editor of an investigative story about the corruption in the city of Bell, California that won a Pulitzer Gold Medal in 2011 for Public Service. Yoshino was suspended from the L.A. Times in January 2018 for unstated reasons, though it's been speculated top editor Lewis D'Vorkin believed she was leaking unflattering information about him to other news outlets. She has also contributed to the Seattle Times, Neiman Lab, the Boston Herald, the Stockton Record and the Fresno Bee.
Biography
Yoshino worked at the Stockton Record and the Fresno Bee, then began working at the Los Angeles Times in 2000. She helped develop their most popular blog, L.A. Now. Yoshino reported on unethical practices at a fertility clinic in the University of California Irvine, and on dangerous rides at Disneyland. Yoshino was the guiding editor of an investigative story about the Bell corruption scandal that won a Pulitzer Gold Medal in 2011 for Public Service. She met her husband, a translator, while working in Iraq. She became the chief editor of Business and Finance for the L.A. Times in 2014. In 2015 and 2016, Yoshino received awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for general excellence. In January 2018, Yoshino was unexpectedly approached by chief editor Lewis D’Vorkin while in a meeting, and escorted directly outside without being able to retrieve her personal belongings. There was no explanation to the press or others in the company. It has been speculated by fellow staff members that D’Vorkin believed Yoshino had leaked unflattering audio recordings of D'Vorkin in meetings to The New York Times and NPR, and possibly that Yoshino had been involved in a scathing piece on D'Vorkin published in the Columbia Journalism Reviewthe day before her firing. It's also suspected the suspension may have been the result of a critical story about Disneyland which had been edited by Yoshino and caused public relations problems for D'Vorkin.
