Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, said that he plans to take the publication public.
In an appearance on The Daily Show, Soon-Shiong told host Jon Stewart that “we are literally going to take the L.A. Times public and allow it to be democratized and allow the public to have ownership of this paper.”
Soon-Shiong compared his plan to a football team that goes public, and Stewart noted the ownership structure of the Green Bay Packers, which is a publicly owned non profit.
Soon-Shiong said that he was working with an organization that is putting the plan together, and that the new structure would be implemented over the next year. He didn’t go into the specifics of the plan. A Times spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Soon-Shiong bought the Times in 2018 for $500 million, taking it private after it was owned by public traded Tribune Publishing, which was briefly named Tronc. In recent years, the Times has undergone a series of buyouts and layoffs that has significantly reduced the size of the staff. The Times went through another round of layoffs in May. Last year, the Times cut about 20% of its newsroom staff, as Soon-Shiong said it was losing $30 million to $40 million per year.
In the interview, Stewart asked Soon-Shiong about his potential conflict in owning a biotechcompany, and the Times, given that he also would be seeking FDA approval.
“In terms of the Times, there’s news reporting, and there’s editorial and voices, and I never discuss or present my stuff in the L.A. Times. I would go to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.”
“Wouldn’t your paper maybe offend the [Trump] administration?”
“It may and it probably does,”Soon-Shiong said.
Last year, Soon-Shiong refused to allow the Times editorial board to endorse in the presidential race. That led to the resignation of the publication editorials editor.
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