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.
As single-minded, profit-driven management drives down the local news business, where is its moral center — the one that long rested, if sometimes uncomfortably, alongside the demands of running a successful business?
We know what continued ownership by Tribune Publishing looks like for the Los Angeles Times: cuts, cuts, and more cuts. A private, local owner would offer a better chance for sustainable success.
Newspapers were, for decades, a prime example of a community institution, meant to last through the centuries. A new generation of owners is thinking of them more as something to milk for profit on their way down.
The purchase of U-T San Diego by Tribune Publishing — owners of the Los Angeles Times up the road — is a sign of the kind of newspaper consolidation publishers are being pushed toward.
Bidders are preparing their final bids for a hodgepodge collection of small and large newspapers from coast to coast. Will another company — or private equity — swoop them all up as one?
The troubled paper has a new (interim) publisher, whose experience is in the casino business. Is there a bigger plan at work, or is Aaron Kushner just lurching from idea to idea?
Doctor, Ken. "Ken Doctor: How interim is everything about the Orange County Register?." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 15 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Nov. 2023.
APA
Doctor, K. (2014, Oct. 15). Ken Doctor: How interim is everything about the Orange County Register?. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved November 20, 2023, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/10/ken-doctor-how-interim-is-everything-about-the-orange-county-register/
Chicago
Doctor, Ken. "Ken Doctor: How interim is everything about the Orange County Register?." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified October 15, 2014. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/10/ken-doctor-how-interim-is-everything-about-the-orange-county-register/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2014/10/ken-doctor-how-interim-is-everything-about-the-orange-county-register/
| title = Ken Doctor: How interim is everything about the Orange County Register?
| last = Doctor
| first = Ken
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 15 October 2014
| accessdate = 20 November 2023
| ref = {{harvid|Doctor|2014}}
}}
