{"id":12547,"date":"2018-02-08T00:11:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-08T00:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=12547"},"modified":"2018-02-08T00:11:00","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T00:11:00","slug":"the-media-today-tronc-said-to-be-selling-the-los-angeles-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2018\/02\/08\/the-media-today-tronc-said-to-be-selling-the-los-angeles-times\/","title":{"rendered":"The media today: Tronc said to be selling the Los Angeles Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staffers at The Los Angeles Times<\/em> have been through the ringer over the past few weeks, as the paper has been hit by an unprecedented amount of turmoil at the top, including the departure<\/a> of its publisher and a revolving door<\/a> in the editor-in-chief’s office. Now there is word that the venerable daily is about to be sold. According to a report late Tuesday by The Washington Post<\/em>, the paper’s parent company\u2014Chicago-based Tronc Inc., which owns a number of other prominent dailies including The Chicago Tribune<\/em>, The Baltimore Sun<\/em> and The New York Daily News<\/em>\u2014is in talks to sell<\/a> the Times<\/em> and its sister paper The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/em> to Los Angeles-based billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.<\/p>\n

If the deal goes through, it could bring an end to a long-running legal drama that has been taking place at the corporate level at Tronc. Soon-Shiong is a former surgeon and investor who made his fortune<\/a> developing a popular cancer drug, and is already a major shareholder in Tronc, formerly known as Tribune Co. Tronc CEO Michael Ferro brought him into<\/a> the company as an investor in 2016, as a way of blocking a takeover attempt by the Gannett newspaper chain, which had made an $800-million acquisition offer. The billionaire physician bought about 13 percent of the company and became chairman, and after a number of attempts to sweeten its bid, Gannett ultimately walked away<\/a> from the deal.<\/p>\n

The relationship between Soon-Shiong and Tronc’s CEO subsequently deteriorated, however, with the LA-based investor accusing Ferro<\/a> of spending lavishly and of failing to follow through on the terms they had agreed to when he invested, including a promise to license some technology that Soon-Shiong’s company had developed. Soon-Shiong also at one point tried to get Ferro to sell him The Los Angeles Times<\/em>, according to some reports<\/a>, but the Tronc CEO refused. The Post<\/em> report suggests they have managed to come to a deal, but whether the billionaire’s acquisition of the Times is enough to justify the “smiles and laughter” some Times<\/em> staffers reported<\/a> after the news broke remains to be seen. Soon-Shiong, who had no history of investment in media or journalism before he joined Tronc, has been critical<\/a> of the media in the past for what he called “false reporting” about the health of his company.<\/p>\n

Here are some more links if you want to catch up on the saga at both the Times<\/em> and Tronc:<\/p>\n