LA Times Owner Talks With Staffer, Promises Change

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong

The owner of the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, suggested in a new interview with his own staff that he would sell the paper if he doesn't see financial progress.

"I’ll continue to fund it, yes," as long as he sees progress, he said during an interview published by his own paper. Soon-Shiong said it was important for the LA Times to increase their reach, and said the only way to do so was "to not be an echo chamber of one side."

Fox News Digital reports Soon-Shiong's paper lost over 20,000 subscribers after he stopped the editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris before the election, which also set off outrage and resignations among his own staff. During other recent interviews, the owner has vowed a major shakeup at the LA Times, and lamented that his paper conflated news and opinion.

The Times has about 650,000 paid readers, combining print, digital and other third-party platforms. About 275,000 of those are direct digital subscribers. He said it was essential to build a bigger audience, which he described as key to securing the 143-year-old newspaper’s future.

People "who cancel [their] subscription should respect the fact that there may be two views on a certain point, and nobody has 100% the right view," Soon-Shiong told the outlet. "And it’s really important for us [to] heal the nation. We’ve got to stop being so polarized."

Soon-Shiong has said he wants to bring in more conservative writers on the opinion side and on the editorial board. He recently announced that CNN political commentator Scott Jennings, a conservative voice on the network, would be part of the new board.

Soon-Shiong also said his goal was to make the paper's culture a "middle-of-the-road, trustworthy news source." Reporters at the outlet have bristled at his suggestion that it wasn't down the middle before, although the LA Times acknowledged its editorial board leaned to the left – it had only endorsed Democrats for president since it began making those choices in 2008. 

He also aroused anger in the newsroom when he suggested an AI-powered "bias meter" that would let readers know the ideological lean of a story or opinion piece.