Billionaire Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong announced on Monday that he would be taking the newspaper public sometime in the next year, calling it a move to democratize the paper.
“It’s important for the paper to have the voices of all, and that’s what I wanted to do, right?” he said on “The Daily Show.” “Whether you’re right, left, Democrat, Republican, you’re an American, so the opportunity for us to provide a paper that is the voices of the people, truly the voices of the people, so I’m going to announce something to you tonight… we’re literally going to take the L.A. Times public and allow it to be democratized.”
Soon-Shiong bought the newspaper for $500 million in 2018. He said the offering would allow the public to have ownership of the newspaper and a say on the board. He didn’t delve into specifics as to how that would look in practice.
“I’m working with an organization that’s putting that together right now,” Soon-Shiong told host Jon Stewart of the process of taking the newspaper public.
LOS ANGELES TIMES OWNER ANNOUNCES PAPER WILL HAVE A NEW EDITORIAL BOARD SOON SO ‘ALL VOICES ARE HEARD’
“Ethics get cloudy if, in fact, the truth is not told,” Soon-Shiong said on Monday. “Our institutions today, there’s so much distrust. Unless you have truth and trust, those two words, I think we’re not going to have any healing in the country… I live this American dream. I’m an immigrant here, right? So to me, this is really a wonderful opportunity for us to have the privilege of being an American.”
The interview with Stewart mainly delved into Soon-Shiong’s efforts to cure cancer. In addition to holding the Times, Soon-Shiong is a surgeon, medical researcher and biotech entrepreneur who’s seeking to develop a cancer vaccine.
The decision to go public comes amid news of the Los Angeles Times’ financial struggles. In April, AdWeek reported the paper had lost $50 million in 2024, the same year it laid off 115 staffers.
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Soon-Shiong’s tenure has also been marked by discontent on the staff, particularly over his recent efforts to moderate its content. He defended his moves to reform the paper’s left-leaning opinion pages in an interview with Fox News Digital earlier this year.
“I really wanted to make sure that we are a trusted source for all Americans,” Soon-Shiong said in January. “Clearly, California is blue, very blue. When our opinion pages were so one-sided, and these are just opinions, I wanted to make sure that everybody had a chance to voice their own opinion. And more importantly, opinion based on facts, not on speculation.”
He also incensed liberal media observers when, like Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, he yanked a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Soon-Shiong has expressed past willingness to work with the Trump administration on his cancer moonshot and disappointment at a lack of partnership from the Biden administration.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the LA Times for additional comment.
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