The owner of the Los Angeles Times said Monday he would “take the paper public” in the next year.
In an interview on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong said the move would allow The Times “to be democratized and allow the public to have ownership of this paper.”
He did not provide specifics about how the deal would work or whether it would involve an initial public offer to sell shares of the company or some other type of investment arrangement.
“Whether you’re right, left, Democrat, Republican, you’re an American. So the opportunity for us to provide a paper that is the voices of the people, truly the voices of the people” in important, Soon-Shiong told Stewart.
“We think over the next year we will,” he said. “I’m working through [that] with an organization that’s putting that together right now.”
Like much of the news industry, The Times has faced financial headwinds in recent years.
In 2018, Soon-Shiong purchased the L.A. Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and several community newspapers in a $500-million deal.
The sale returned The Times to local control after a turbulent 18 years of ownership by Chicago-based Tronc. In 2023, he sold the San Diego Union-Tribune to MediaNews Group.
Soon-Shiong built his fortune through pioneering pharmaceutical and biotech ventures, including cancer treatments.
