Yesterday, media conglomerate Tronc sold the Los Angeles Times (along with its “sibling paper,” The San Diego Union-Tribune) for $500m.
The buyer, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, is the latest in a procession of billionaires who’ve snatched up large media companies in recent years — but you probably haven’t heard his name.
Soon-Shiong began his career as a transplant surgeon but later branched into biotechnology, where he made the bulk of his $7.8B fortune.
He founded multiple billion-dollar biotech firms focused on diabetes and cancer research — some of which has been accused of “stretching the truth” on occasion.
For Soon-Shiong, the Times purchase is the culmination of a multi-year effort: he first invested in Tronc (the Times’ holding company) in 2016, after unsuccessfully trying to buy the paper multiple times.
The Times, now 136 years old, had been owned by one family until being purchased by Tribune Publishing (later Tronc) in 2000.
Since then, the paper has struggled: it’s been through 3 editors in the past 6 months, its publisher has been accused of sexual harassment, and its newsroom staff has dipped from around 1.2k to 400.
Now, the 44-time Pulitzer-winning institution is banking on the same strategy as the Washington Post (Jeff Bezos), The Boston Globe (John Henry), and the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Glen Taylor): it’s hoping a billionaire will turn the ship around.