Julia Turner is a journalist, culture critic and seasoned media executive. As a Senior Fellow at the CCLP, she’s exploring ways to develop sustainable business models for news in the digital age—nationally and locally, with a particular focus on the news ecosystem in Los Angeles.
Prior to joining the CCLP, Turner worked for five years at the Los Angeles Times, first as a deputy managing editor and then as the senior vice president of content business strategy. During her tenure, she helped develop and implement new digital strategies for the legacy newsroom. She oversaw the paper’s culture coverage and expanded its audience and impact, helping the team produce work that won Pulitzer recognition three years in a row and investigations that transformed Hollywood. She helped launch new products—podcasts, event series, newsletters, utility journalism—designed to court the next generation of subscribers. And she worked with leaders across the company to align efforts to transform the business.
Turner spent 15 years at the online magazine Slate before joining the Los Angeles Times. During her four years as editor-in-chief, she expanded the online magazine’s audience, its podcast network, and its membership program, and the journalism Slate published earned numerous accolades, including Polk and National Magazine Awards.
At Slate, Turner had previously served as deputy editor and culture editor, and also spent time as a reporter and critic covering politics, television, media and design. For more than fifteen years, she’s co-hosted the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast, which the New York Times described as a “mix of brainy cultural analysis and sparkling repartee” that “helped define a genre.” She’s served on the board of the American Society of Magazine Editors since 2019.
Born in Boston, Turner is the daughter of two journalists who met working at the Boston Globe. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.