The Phnom Penh Post

Billionair­e takes over

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BIOTECH billionair­e Patrick Soon-Shiong took over Monday as the new owner of The Los Angeles Times and immediatel­y named respected journalist Norman Pearlstine as top editor.

The changeover aims to reinvigora­te what had been one of the leading US dailies until it fell on hard economic times in the digital era and saw a rise in newsroom unrest.

“From today, our important work protecting and building on a rich history of independen­t journalism begins – with a sense of urgency and purpose,” said a note to readers by SoonShiong, who agreed to pay $500 million and assume $90 million in pension liabilitie­s to acquire the daily from the newspaper group Tronc.

The new owner’s first move was to name as executive editor Pearlstine, 75, who has worked at The Wall Street Journal, Time Inc magazines and Bloomberg News in a 50-year career.

“Not only does he have amazing experience with the full knowledge of how a newsroom runs – but he’s amazingly modern and forwardloo­king,” Soon-Shiong told the newspaper.

“There’s no agenda, other than to make this the best journalist­ic institutio­n.”

Soon-Shiong, a surgeon whose biotech investment­s have boosted his net worth to some $7.5 billion, reached the TheLosAnge­lesTimes

deal earlier this year to take over The Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune, operating under the California News Group.

He becomes the latest billionair­e aiming to revive the fortunes of ailing US metropolit­an newspapers, following Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’s takeover of The Washington Post and investor John Henry’s deal for The Boston Globe.

He reached the deal after months of newsroom unrest at the storied Los Angeles daily that saw three editors in the past six months and a vote to unionise the journalist­s.

The LA Times, like many newspapers, has been downsizing its staff as readers turn away from print to online news platforms.

The Los Angeles daily was family-owned for more than a century before being sold to the Chicago-based Tribune Co in 2000.

Tribune Co, which split off its b r o a d c a s t d i v i s i o n a n d renamed its publishing arm Tronc (for Tribune Online Content), will continue to own The Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Senti- nel, Baltimore Sun and New York Daily News.

Soon-Shiong, born in South Africa to Chinese parents, has been an investor in Tronc and also owns a stake in the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team.

He has been a faculty member at the UCLA medical school and has invested in and donated to medical research.

 ?? DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP ?? building is seen on February 6 in Los Angeles, California.
DAVID MCNEW/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP building is seen on February 6 in Los Angeles, California.

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