New L-A Times Owner Condemns 'False News'

In February, Tronc Media, owners of the Orlando Sentinel and Chicago Tribune, announced it would be selling the L.A. Times to Patrick Soon-Shiong, billionaire founder of Culver City-based Nanthealth, $500 million cash.

The sale became final today. Mediapost reports Soon-Shiong will also take control of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Spanish-language Hoy and several other local papers.

Norman Pearlstine

As of Monday afternoon, Soon-Shiong appointed Norman Pearlstine, who has previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Time Inc. and Forbes, the newspaper’s new executive editor.

In a letter to readers printed in the weekend edition of the paper, Soon-Shiong wrote: “I believe that fake news is the cancer of our times and social media the vehicles for metastasis. Institutions like the LA Times and the Union-Tribune are more vital than ever. They must be bastions of editorial integrity and independence if they are to protect our democracy and provide an antidote to disinformation.”

In addition, the stability of the newsroom, prior to Pearlstine, had been rocked with three editors in 10 months. Plus, in the last four years, five publishers have taken control at the company.

Before the sale, Tronc had planned to close the Washington bureau, leading to more layoffs. According to a piece in the L.A. Times, Soon-Shiong claims Tronc was planning to lay off an additional 20% of employees at the company.

Patrick Soon-Shiong

Soon-Shiong will become executive chairman of the California News Group immediately and will relocate most of the company’s 800 employees to a building he owns in El Segundo by the end of July. He has invested millions in the El Segundo building to create a state-of-the-art home for digital and print journalism, including a test kitchen.

The L.A. Times reports that Soon-Shiong has reached out to veterans of the news business to help him during this transition.

Per the L.A. Times, those brought on board to help with the transition include Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, Donald Graham, former owner of The Washington Post,  former L.A. Times publisher Tom Johnson, and Judy Woodruff, anchor of the PBS “NewsHour.”

The L.A. Times is reportedly profitable and has a circulation of 690,000 Sunday and 440,000 weekday subscribers. The website receives 33 million unique visitors a month, per comScore.