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. 5 Jun. 2023.
APA
Doctor, K. (2014, Oct. 15). Ken Doctor: How interim is everything about the Orange County Register?. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved June 5, 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 June 5, 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 = 5 June 2023
| ref = {{harvid|Doctor|2014}}
}}
