• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 4, 2025

The Los Angeles Times is the latest periodical to announce changes in its approach to opinions. 

“Today, we are beginning a new effort to ensure that readers can readily distinguish opinion-driven content from our news reporting,” writes Patrick Soon-Shiong, 
executive chairman of the Times, in a letter to readers. “Any content written from a point of view may be labeled Voices, which helps to strengthen the separation between what’s news and what’s not. Voices is not strictly limited to Opinion section content. It also includes news commentary, criticism, reviews, and more."

He adds, ”If a piece takes a stance or is written from a personal perspective, it may be labeled Voices. Any content written from a point of view may be labeled between what’s news and what’s not. Voices is not strictly limited to Opinion section content. It also includes news commentary, criticism, reviews, and more. If a piece takes a stance or is written from a personal perspective, it may be labeled Voices.”

Presumably, this would include journalistic pieces with a narrative thrust, or any article in which the writer displays a personal style or angle. 

Soon-Shiong continues, “We are also releasing Insights, an AI-driven feature that will appear on some Voices content. The purpose of Insights is to offer readers an instantly accessible way to see a wide range of different AI-enabled perspectives alongside the positions presented in the article.”

What exactly is Insights? “L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices articles that offer a point of view on an issue,” Soon-Shiong states. “This may include Opinion columns, editorials, commentary and more.”

Soon-Shiong goes on to say, “Insights analyzes Voices content to identify where the views expressed may fall on the political spectrum. It also offers an annotated summary of the ideas expressed in the piece along with different views on the topic from a variety of sources.”

Some of this may provide a way for the Times to distance itself from content that may be offensive to certain politicians. A piece that is even mildly critical may be accompanied by contrary articles or letters.

However, Soon-Shiong stops short of proclaiming a fixed position for opinion articles, as Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos did last week.

“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote in an email to Post staffers. “We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

We’ll see if the LA Times follows a similar policy. Like Bezos, Soon-Shiong pulled back from endorsing Kamala Harris—or any candidate—during the 2024 election. 

Soon-Shiong also mentioned that L.A. Times Studios is now producing video-streaming content daily with news, features, and other programming, plus continuous live camera feeds from Los Angeles locations. Will they also be tagged under the Voices heading if the content veers toward expressing an opinion?