LA Times owner pushes paper to be middle of the road, suggests he'll sell it if not profitable

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."

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.

"But something has to change if all this is [being] considered a philanthropic trust. It’s not. A sustainable business has to occur," he added.

LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong emphasized that the paper needed to increase their readership in order to stay afloat during a recent interview. (Left:  (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic), Right:  (Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images))

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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.

During an interview with Fox News in November, Soon Shiong said, "It is our responsibility to maintain democracy, to have the views of all our California readers, in fact, the views of all the national readers to be aired. Because if we just have the one side, it becomes nothing else but an echo chamber."

A general view of the Los Angeles Times offices on November 10, 2020, in El Segundo, California.   (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

"And so, it's going to be risky and difficult. I'm going to take a lot of heat, which I already am, but you know, I come from the position that really it's important for all voices to be heard," Soon-Shiong said.

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The LA Times reported Soon-Shiong has made total outlays of about $1 billion in investments in local journalism, but he needs to see the audience, particularly online, grow.

"Unless we build a paper that can engage and increase the readership, what are we doing?" he asked.

The Washington Post faced a similar backlash after choosing not to issue a presidential endorsement. Subscriptions also plummeted at the Post after they didn't endorse the vice president.

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MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski said former President Trump "forced" The Post editorial board to not endorse Harris in the race during an interview on ABC's "The View." The board was reportedly all set to offer an endorsement of Harris before the plug was pulled at the last minute.

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"He got the Washington Post and Jeff Bezos, who's supposedly a powerful, brilliant billionaire. He got Bezos to back down, the head of Amazon. Runs the Washington Post, owns it… He forced them to not endorse. That's pretty scary, guys," Brzezinski said.