One’s a family-controlled, century-plus-old newspaper chain, known for believing in its civic mission but not for its digital strategy. The other is, well, Tronc. With an assist from L.A.’s richest man, could this be a path forward?
Rupert Murdoch owning the New York Daily News? A McCormick controlling the Chicago Tribune again? The L.A. Times pulling a Washington Post, aiming to run the industry’s underlying infrastructure? A lot of change is coming soon.
What will happen to the price of Tronc shares as investors, a good number of speculators among them, assess the post-L.A. Times value of a major daily newspaper chain effectively halved in the deal?
For a company that’s known little but chaos in its short life, the degree of uncertainty is now as high as ever. Just about the only thing we know: Tronc execs will come out well in the end.
Even without the L.A. Times, it still controls a lot of important newspapers. Will it sell them to Gannett, Murdoch, local individuals in each city — or to yet another private equity firm looking to strip papers for parts?
Tronc is getting a big premium for its flagship asset, and the Times is getting a return to private, local ownership. But a lot of questions remain about where Patrick Soon-Shiong will take his new prize.
Doctor, Ken. "Newsonomics: Inside Tronc’s sale of the L.A. Times (and all the new questions to come)." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 7 Feb. 2018. Web. 20 Apr. 2024.
APA
Doctor, K. (2018, Feb. 7). Newsonomics: Inside Tronc’s sale of the L.A. Times (and all the new questions to come). Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved April 20, 2024, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/02/newsonomics-inside-troncs-sale-of-the-l-a-times-and-all-the-new-questions-to-come/
Chicago
Doctor, Ken. "Newsonomics: Inside Tronc’s sale of the L.A. Times (and all the new questions to come)." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified February 7, 2018. Accessed April 20, 2024. https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/02/newsonomics-inside-troncs-sale-of-the-l-a-times-and-all-the-new-questions-to-come/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/02/newsonomics-inside-troncs-sale-of-the-l-a-times-and-all-the-new-questions-to-come/
| title = Newsonomics: Inside Tronc’s sale of the L.A. Times (and all the new questions to come)
| last = Doctor
| first = Ken
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 7 February 2018
| accessdate = 20 April 2024
| ref = {{harvid|Doctor|2018}}
}}
