A biotech billionaire who purchased the Los Angeles Times with an eye toward restoring its independence and vigor officially took control of the news organization Monday, June 18, the newspaper reported.
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (pronounced: soon-shong) spent $500 million to buy The Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Spanish-language newspaper Hoy and some community newspapers from Chicago-based Tronc.
The newspaper on Monday also announced its new executive editor, Norman Pearlstine, an industry veteran who has worked at Time Inc. magazine, Bloomberg News, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. The Times said Pearlstine had been working with Soon-Shiong as an adviser for the last two months. Pearlstine was charged with creating a transition plan, which he will now help execute.
Pearlstine has spent 50 years in journalism with publications including Time Inc., Bloomberg News, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.
He becomes the Times’ fourth top editor in less than a year — and its 18th since the newspaper began publishing in 1881. He succeeds Jim Kirk, whose seven-month tenure came during a period of corporate upheaval that culminated with the sale of the paper.
“One of the great things that comes with Patrick’s ownership, with local ownership and a willingness to invest, is that it brings a period of stability,” Pearlstine said in an interview with the Times.
Pearlstine and Soon-Shiong met a few years ago, when Pearlstine was vice chairman at Time; they reconnected in February. Soon-Shiong said he discussed an interim role for Pearlstine, but quickly dismissed that idea.
“We’ve had enough interims,” Soon-Shiong said. “He’ll be here as long as he wants.”
In 2005, while serving as editor in chief of Time, Pearlstine was harshly criticized for turning over subpoenaed notes of reporter Matthew Cooper to a federal grand jury that was hearing evidence into the identification of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Pearlstine said Time had spent millions of dollars fighting the special counsel and “lost every round.”
The deal for the Times, announced Feb. 7, returns the newspaper to local ownership after nearly two decades under rocky Chicago control. The newsroom has been led by three editors in 10 months and five publishers in four years.
Soon-Shiong, 65, will become executive chairman of the California News Group.
He plans to move the newsroom from its iconic downtown headquarters to a building under construction 12 miles south in El Segundo, just blocks from Los Angeles International Airport. The property will include a Times museum gallery, event and retail space.
Soon-Shiong takes on a storied yet diminished news organization that once had more than 1,200 journalists and more than 25 foreign bureaus. Now, The Times employs about 400 journalists with bureaus in Sacramento, Washington and some foreign and national outposts.
Newspapers across the country have struggled as readers and advertisers flock to the internet. Soon-Shiong has promised to rebuild The Times.
“The last three months has been an amazing experience for me to really learn — I mean on a steep learning curve — about all the elements that are affecting this industry,” he said after signing paperwork to finalize the purchase.
On Monday, he was due to wire the money to complete the sale.
A South African native and son of Chinese immigrants, Soon-Shiong is a former UCLA surgeon who built a fortune by building and selling two biopharmaceutical companies.
He owns a nearly 4.5 percent stake in the Los Angeles Lakers and last year purchased six financially strapped California hospitals.
