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| Dr. Patrick Soon-Chiong |
ASAM NEWS
A MULTI-BILLIONAIRE Asian/American doctor has bought the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune from parent company Tronc for nearly $500-million, the company announced Wednesday (Feb. 7).
The Los Angeles Times reports the newspapers cash purchase from the Chicago-based Tronc media corporation by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong came together quickly over the last five days.
The Los Angeles Times reports the newspapers cash purchase from the Chicago-based Tronc media corporation by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong came together quickly over the last five days.
“We look forward to continuing the great tradition of award-winning journalism carried out by the reporters and editors of the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and the other California News Group titles,” Soon-Shiong said in a statement.
It follows a period of turmoil for the Times. The paper has gone through a number of editors and publishers and it’s workers last month voted to unionize.
Soon-Shiong, 65, is a South African-born American surgeon whose worth is estimated at nearly $8 billion dollars by Forbes. He made his fortune in the biotech industry.
He is currently an adjunct professor of surgery at UCLA where he also leads the Wireless Health Institute. Soon-Shiong is also chair of Nantworks, a company which describes its single mission as delivering on “the true promise of The Cognitive Age…combining the collective promise of science, technology and communication. And then making it accessible to all people.”
He acquired his wealth - about $8-billion - from the sale of two of his companies which concentrated on cancer research and treatments.
He was born to Chinese immigrant parents who escaped the Japanese occupation of China in WWII, according to Wikipedia. He is number 55 on Forbes 400 list and became a doctor at age 23. He is also a minority owner of the L.A. Lakers.
What the sale means for the two papers is still to come, but analysts say it will take a lot for Soon-Shiong to turn the papers around. The newspaper industry in general, has suffered because of competition from newer forms of media. The L.A. Times newsroom, which once 1000 journalists in the late 1990s,, is down to 400.
“Patrick Soon-Shiong is a doctor and I hope that he can stand the sight of blood because it is going to take a lot of investment to turn the paper around,” Gabriel Kahn, a journalism professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, told the LA Times.
He sent a letter to the employees of both papers on Wednesday night, saying the decision to buy it is "deeply personal" for him and his family as residents of Southern California.
He says he's a great admirer of the work done on the newspapers and assures the staffs that he will give them the tools and resources they need to produce high-quality journalism.
His interest in journalism became public in mid-2016, when he invested $70.5 million in Tronc to help it fend off a buyout bid from Gannett, but he traced it to growing up in apartheid South Africa. As a minority investor, he has openly criticized the direction of Tronc was taking the newspapers.
“I believe it is critical to our democracy and our way of life that we have a strong, vibrant media,” he said in a statement announcing his purchase, “and that it continues to function as the Fourth Estate.”
What the sale means for the two papers is still to come, but analysts say it will take a lot for Soon-Shiong to turn the papers around. The newspaper industry in general, has suffered because of competition from newer forms of media. The L.A. Times newsroom, which once 1000 journalists in the late 1990s,, is down to 400.
“Patrick Soon-Shiong is a doctor and I hope that he can stand the sight of blood because it is going to take a lot of investment to turn the paper around,” Gabriel Kahn, a journalism professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, told the LA Times.
He sent a letter to the employees of both papers on Wednesday night, saying the decision to buy it is "deeply personal" for him and his family as residents of Southern California.
He says he's a great admirer of the work done on the newspapers and assures the staffs that he will give them the tools and resources they need to produce high-quality journalism.
His interest in journalism became public in mid-2016, when he invested $70.5 million in Tronc to help it fend off a buyout bid from Gannett, but he traced it to growing up in apartheid South Africa. As a minority investor, he has openly criticized the direction of Tronc was taking the newspapers.
“I believe it is critical to our democracy and our way of life that we have a strong, vibrant media,” he said in a statement announcing his purchase, “and that it continues to function as the Fourth Estate.”
(Views From the Edge contributed to this report. Updated, 11 p.m., Feb. 7.)
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