The Los Angeles Times Returns To Local Ownership

Biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong on Monday will take control of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, two historic newspapers rooted in Southern California civic life for more than 135 years — that now must adapt for the digital age.

According to The LA Times, Soon-Shiong is spending $500 million to acquire the news organizations, along with Spanish-language Hoy and a handful of community newspapers, from Chicago-based Tronc. The deal, which was announced Feb. 7, returns The Times to local ownership after 18 turbulent years under Chicago control.

Changes will be felt almost immediately. Soon-Shiong, who will become executive chairman of the California News Group, plans to relocate most of the 800 employees to El Segundo by the end of July, vacating the paper’s iconic Art Deco headquarters in downtown Los Angeles — The Times’ home since 1935.

Patrick Soon-Shiong

Previous corporate owners two years ago had sold the building, and the paper’s lease expires June 30. Rather than pay a substantial rent increase, Soon-Shiong opted to shift the operation to a building near Los Angeles International Airport that he bought last year. The building was gutted, and during the last three months, Soon-Shiong and his wife, Michele B. Chan Soon-Shiong, have spent millions of dollars creating a 21st century newsroom that encourages collaboration. (Some local government reporters will remain downtown.)

Soon-Shiong, a 65-year-old South African native and former UCLA surgeon, has amassed a fortune, estimated by Forbes at $7.5 billion, by building, then selling, two biopharmaceutical companies. Since then, he has been on a mission to personalize cancer treatment and develop vaccinations for deadly diseases. He owns a nearly 4.5% stake in the Lakers and last year swooped in to buy six financially strapped California hospitals, including St. Vincent and St. Francis in Los Angeles.

But owning the Los Angeles Times is his highest-profile venture — and his legacy probably will be formed by his efforts to revitalize a weary newspaper group facing an uncertain future as advertisers gravitate to Google and Facebook, where readers are consuming more news.

The Times once boasted one of the world’s largest newsrooms, with more than 1,200 journalists and more than 25 foreign bureaus in far-flung cities including Vienna, Nairobi, Seoul and Saigon. Now it employs about 400 journalists and maintains bureaus in Sacramento and Washington along with a handful of foreign and national outposts. Dozens of writers and editors in recent years have left for other news outlets.