The proprietor of the Los Angeles Occasions mentioned Monday he would “take the paper public” within the subsequent 12 months.
In an interview on “The Each day Present With Jon Stewart,” Dr. Patrick Quickly-Shiong mentioned the transfer would enable The Occasions “to be democratized and permit the general public to have possession of this paper.”
He didn’t present specifics about how the deal would work or whether or not it could contain an preliminary public provide to promote shares of the corporate or another sort of funding association.
“Whether or not you’re proper, left, Democrat, Republican, you’re an American. So the chance for us to supply a paper that’s the voices of the folks, actually the voices of the folks” in essential, Quickly-Shiong informed Stewart.
“We predict over the subsequent 12 months we’ll,” he mentioned. “I’m working by means of [that] with a company that’s placing that collectively proper now.”
Like a lot of the information trade, The Occasions has confronted monetary headwinds in recent times.
In 2018, Quickly-Shiong bought the L.A. Occasions, the San Diego Union-Tribune and several other group newspapers in a $500-million deal.
The sale returned The Occasions to native management after a turbulent 18 years of possession by Chicago-based Tronc. In 2023, he bought the San Diego Union-Tribune to MediaNews Group.
Quickly-Shiong constructed his fortune by means of pioneering pharmaceutical and biotech ventures, together with most cancers therapies.