Control of the Los Angeles Times is scheduled to change hands on Monday, when Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong will take ownership of the newspaper, the Times reported Saturday.
The biotech entrepreneur, 65, bought the Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and other properties from Chicago-based Tronc in a $500 million deal that was announced Feb. 7.
It marks the first time that the 136-year-old publication will be locally owned in 18 years, and it’s not the last big change in store for the Times this summer. Soon-Shiong plans to move the newspaper’s headquarters out of its historic art deco building in downtown to suburban El Segundo by the end of next month, having told staff in April that terms could not be reached with Canadian developer Onni, which owns the Times building on First and Spring streets, near City Hall where the Times has been based since 1935.
“There’s not much time for me to find accommodation for 800 people,” Soon-Shiong told 300 employees gathered for the April meeting, according to the Times. “We decided that we needed to create the most modern newsroom … one that respects the work and the lifestyle of the people who work in the newsroom.
“We need to build a campus that is there for the next 100 years, not lease a building.”
The new facility will include an eight-floor building on 4.5 acres with 120,000 square feet of space. A museum chronicling the Times’ 136-year history would be located on the first floor.
There were audible gasps as the move was announced, the newspaper reported.
Times business editor Kimi Yoshino posted on Twitter that after the staff meeting, she walked back to the newsroom where “everyone has Google Maps open on their screens, calculating new commute times.”
But Soon-Shiong said there could still be a Times satellite office downtown, possibly at the paper’s printing plant on Olympic Boulevard, to accommodate staff reporting assignments nearby.