Prominent Los Angeles physician and entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong is gradually revealing his plan to resurrect the Los Angeles Times that suffered losses of $50 million over the last year. But rather than cut the newsroom, the new owner added almost 100 new reporters this last year. The new hires are essential in maximizing core reporting with a transmedia operation, “video, TV, audio, VR, games, and plain old-fashioned social media management…” The Times this week is joining Apple in their launch of the Apple News Plus subscription package. (Nieman Lab, March 27, 2019, by Ken Doctor)
Soon-Shiong’s purchase of the Times has inspired optimism as he invested vast sums of money and said he wanted to create a strong, independent newspaper. Otis Chandler took over the family enterprise in 1960, revived it, then sold it in 2000 to Chicago’s Tribune Company. Over the past nearly 20 years, the newspaper lost revenue, went through bankruptcy and a number of disastrous owners and managers until Soon-Shiong came on the scene. (Alta, March 25, 2019, by Mark Potts)