Billionaire Eli Broad wants to see the
Los Angeles Times championing civic projects--becoming, in his view, the glue to unite a diverse and fractured city, reports
The New York Times.
Newspapers are the soul of a community and should be locally owned, he says--one reason why he wants to see the
LA Times--now owned by the Chicago-based Tribune Co.--get acquired by a group of
local organizations, including his own foundation. "A newspaper can provide a power base," he says. "If a publisher wants to get things done, they can get 30 of the most important people in the room.
It's even more important in Los Angeles because of the diverse geography." Broad is not the only one who sees benefit in local ownership of newspapers: Dailies in both Philadelphia and Wilkes-Barre,
Pa. have recently been sold to local investors. Other potential local buyers are also looking at the
LA Times as Tribune comes under pressure to break itself up from its second-largest
shareholder. "In some ways, it is a return to the past, before local newspapers were rolled up into national chains," the
Times story says. "Local moguls seem less put off than other investors
by the uncertainty of the newspaper business, which has experienced a migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet."
advertisement
advertisement
Read the whole story at New York Times »
