LA Times owner pushes paper to be middle of the road, suggests he'll sell it if not profitable

The owner of the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, suggested in a new interview with his own staff that he would sell the paper if he doesn't see financial progress.

"I'll continue to fund it, yes," as long as he sees progress, he said during an interview published by his own paper. Soon-Shiong said it was important for the LA Times to increase their reach, and said the only way to do so was "to not be an echo chamber of one side."

"But something has to change if all this is [being] considered a philanthropic trust. It's not. A sustainable business has to occur," he added.

People "who cancel [their] subscription should respect the fact that there may be two views on a certain point, and nobody has 100% the right view," Soon-Shiong told the outlet. "And it's really important for us [to] heal the nation. We've got to stop being so polarized."

Soon-Shiong also said his goal was to make the paper's culture a "middle-of-the-road, trustworthy news source." Reporters at the outlet have bristled at his suggestion that it wasn't down the middle before, although the LA Times acknowledged its editorial board leaned to the left - it had only endorsed Democrats for president since it began making those choices in 2008. 

During an interview with Fox News in November, Soon Shiong said, "It is our responsibility to maintain democracy, to have the views of all our California readers, in fact, the views of all the national readers to be aired. Because if we just have the one side, it becomes nothing else but an echo chamber."

The LA Times reported Soon-Shiong has made total outlays of about $1 billion in investments in local journalism, but he needs to see the audience, particularly online, grow.

"Unless we build a paper that can engage and increase the readership, what are we doing?" he asked.