Kimi Yoshino is an American journalist and the editor-in-chief of the Baltimore Banner, a nonprofit publication funded by Baltimore-area hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr.[1]
Yoshino worked at the Stockton Record and the Fresno Bee[2] before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2000.[2] She helped develop the publication's most popular blog, L.A. Now.[3] Yoshino reported on unethical practices at a fertility clinic in the University of California Irvine,[4] and on dangerous rides at Disneyland.[5] 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.[6][7] She met her husband, a translator, while working in Iraq.[3] She became the chief editor of Business and Finance for the L.A. Times in 2014.[6][8] In 2015 and 2016, Yoshino received awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for general excellence.[9]
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.[5][10] There was no explanation to the press or others in the company.[9][5] 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,[8] and possibly that Yoshino had been involved in a scathing piece on D'Vorkin published in the Columbia Journalism Review the day before her firing.[9][10][5] 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.[8]
She has also contributed to the Seattle Times,[11] Nieman Lab,[12] the Boston Herald,[13] the Stockton Record[2] and the Fresno Bee.[2]