Paper’s leader leaves today

Tom Johnson, the publisher of the Coastline Pilot, announced his resignation from the company Tuesday.

At the time of his resignation, he also served as general manager of Times Community News, which publishes six other community papers in Southern California. Johnson joined the Daily Pilot in Newport Beach/Costa Mesa as an associate publisher in 1991 and took over as publisher two years later.

In 2003, under Johnson’s leadership, Times Community News acquired the Coastline News in Laguna Beach, which became the Coastline Pilot.

In a written statement to staffers, Johnson said he disagreed with the direction in which the company was headed. Johnson’s resignation came as the company laid off employees Tuesday, the second round of cuts in several months.

In an interview Tuesday, Johnson said the last 15 years have been a treasured time in his life.

“Without a doubt, there’s two things I’ll miss,” he said. “One is the community involvement. And the other was just the employees at the newspaper. I was very fortunate to work with a lot of great people over time. They made it fun coming in to work every day, and it’s going to be hard to replace that.”

During his tenure, Johnson made himself visible by participating in the Hoag Hospital Foundation, the Orange Coast College Foundation, the Commodores Club of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce and other groups.

John O’Loughlin, the president of Targeted Media for the Los Angeles Times, said in a statement to employees that the company was dedicated to keeping the Times Community News, or TCN, publications a major part of its product.

“While I fully understand and empathize with the unsettling feeling that can come with such change...the one thing that does not and cannot change is your relentless focus on the readers, advertisers and communities that the TCN titles serve,” O’Loughlin wrote.

Johnson said he has no plans to retire and would seek another job.

“I’ve got a big office to clean out,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of great memories in there from 17 years.”

Johnson’s last day is today. No successor has been named.

MICHAEL MILLER can be reached at michael.miller@latimes.com.