When the legendary journalist David Halberstam wrote his landmark 1979 book about American journalism, The Powers That Be, he focused on four media organizations: the Washington Post, Time magazine, CBS and the Los Angeles Times.
His choice of the LA newspaper made perfect sense. Influential and successful, it was owned by a prominent California family, the Chandlers. The paper had high standards, a raft of Pulitzer prizes, and a hard-charging Washington DC bureau that competed successfully with its east coast rivals. For reporters and editors, the LA Times was a prestigious career destination; if you got there, you probably stayed.
Nearly 50 years later, the Los Angeles Times is much smaller in staff size and circulation size and is losing tens of millions of dollars a year. The beleaguered staff was rocked – again – in recent weeks with the news that the owner, the billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, wants to take the newspaper public in the next year. This would, he said, “democratize” it.
He offered few details, though, as he made the announcement on a late-night talkshow during an interview with host Jon Stewart, who was roundly criticized for his softball approach.
Certainly, the paper has been through hell over the decades. It endured many years of owners far more focused on profits than on the best interests of the reading public.
Roughly a decade ago – long after the Chandlers had sold the paper – the Times was part of the laughably named and poorly run “Tronc” chain that was busy diminishing the Chicago Tribune and other journalistic institutions.
The staff was shrinking, the hope for profits disappearing and the newsroom’s morale low.
Then, salvation seemed to arrive. Soon-Shiong, a former surgeon who made his fortune in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, bought the paper in 2018, coming in hot with promises of restoring the paper’s greatness and public mission.
Champagne corks popped as the new owner’s view of newspapers as a public trust seemed to offer relief from all the drama of recent years.
But – ever so sadly – those promises have turned out to be mostly hollow, though the paper remains the largest news organization in the American west and has a respected editor in Terry Tang, formerly of the New York Times. Though it has many talented journalists who still churn out important investigations, break news and win major awards, it is drowning in red ink and laid off 20% of its staff last year. Paid subscriptions are fewer than 300,000, compared with 11m at the New York Times and (as of 2023) more than 2m at the Washington Post.
The billionaire doctor has become closer to Donald Trump and may have allowed that relationship to affect the paper’s editorial integrity. Last year, he blocked a planned presidential endorsement of then vice-president Kamala Harris, causing a cascade of subscribers to cancel and the top opinion editor to resign. (Some reports suggested the decision was related to Gaza.)
Many a journalist, especially on the opinion side, has walked out the door, and a celebrated top editor, Kevin Merida, departed last year after disagreements with the Soon-Shiong family.
Can Soon-Shiong’s latest notion of taking the paper public improve this sorry situation?
The plan seems far from ideal. After all, the large regional newspapers that have thrived in the US are those with local ownership committed to the best journalistic practices – including editorial independence. The best owners have protected that while working toward financial success in this challenging new digital environment.
Consider: the Philadelphia Inquirer is owned by a local non-profit. The Boston Globe is owned by Boston-based John W Henry, whose portfolio includes the Boston Red Sox. And the Minnesota Star Tribune is owned by Glen Taylor, a Minnesota-based businessperson and former state senator.
The worst owners, by contrast, are predatory chains such as Alden Global Capital, a Manhattan-based hedge fund intent on wringing the last profits from waning newspapers. They don’t seem to care about the public mission or about building a sustainable future for their papers.
Granted, we’re a long way since “the powers that be” and from the rich heyday of newspapers when 30% profit margins were nothing to marvel at, and when regional papers like the Baltimore Sun and the Chicago Tribune boasted foreign bureaus and newsrooms of 400 or more.
The industry is in sharp decline. No local newspaper has had an easy time since the business model changed so radically 20 years ago with the precipitous loss of print advertising.
But those with reasonably enlightened local ownership have fared the best. The LA Times, under Patrick Soon-Shiong, could have been in that enviable category – but it didn’t go that way.
The chances of restoring the gleam to this journalistic jewel can only be described as uncertain. And, for many reasons, that’s a shame.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
