Owner Insists: LA Times Not For Sale

Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong has strenuously denied reports that he is in talks to sell the Times to trade publisher Jay Penske.  

“Fake news that we are in discussions to sell the LA Times,” Soon-Shiong says of the report in The Intersect. “Completely fabricated. We are committed to grow this most important newspaper on the West Coast and the journalistic need to speak truth to power.” 

MediaPost reports the story states that the sides “have held talks about a deal where the L.A. Times is folded into Penske’s PMC Media empire that includes Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and Variety,” Niemanlab writes. 

What perhaps gives this report some credibility is the fact that Alden Global Capital is acquiring the San Diego Union-Tribune from The Los Angeles Times. Founded in 1868, The Union-Tribune was acquired by Tribune Publishing in 2015, and bought by Patrick Soon-Shiong in 2018 in a deal that included the L.A. Times.

In June, the L.A. Times reduced its newsroom staff by 13% eliminating some 74 positions.