In May, a young Los Angeles Times writer covering the weekend produced a 190-word story about a group of suspects believed to have stolen costly watches before making their getaway in a black Rolls-Royce.
Activism groups were outraged by Jeong Park’s piece. They weren’t so much disturbed by the crime itself as they were with the way the Times reported it. It was mocked as a “press release” for law enforcement by online activists who support cutting police funding.
The media took notice, though, when one activist joined the pile-on.
Times owner Patrick Soon-29-year-old Shiong’s daughter Nika Soon-Shiong took a screenshot of the article with Park’s name on it and tweeted her disapproval of Park’s work. The younger Soon-Shiong implied that the Times was complicit in “protecting the Rolls-Royce and luxury watches” while turning a blind eye to the sheriff’s department’s “overcharging, altering crime data, or lying about the cost per deputy…” This post has since been deleted.
It didn’t take long for the tweet to make its way through the newsroom, and it shocked many people that the newspaper’s ownership would publicly shame a young reporter in such a way.
When Nika Soon-parents Shiong showed up for a newsroom-wide gathering the next day to celebrate the Times winning a Pulitzer Prize for photography, the staff was thrown for a loop. At that time, employees recalled how Patrick Soon-Shiong had praised the winning photographer and the entire staff.
Reporters at the newspaper saw this as a poignant illustration of the strained and uncomfortable dynamic that exists between the newsroom and the ownership family.
More than a dozen current and former employees told POLITICO that the newspaper went through growing pains due to its inexperienced billionaire owner. To revitalize and reinvest in the Times, rich pharmaceutical executive Soon-Shiong has made several attempts to do so. However, his reign has also been marked by internal strife and questions over where priorities should lie.
Staff members, many of whom requested and were granted anonymity to provide an honest assessment of the leadership, have indicated that Soon-focus Shiong’s can be fleeting. A departure of employees and tense confrontations between the bureau chief and a star reporter have been attributed to leadership problems at the D.C. bureau. Also, the ownership, specifically Nika Soon-Shiong, has been accused of interfering with the reporting.
The paper’s executive editor, Kevin Merida, remarked, “Every media firm has its issues.” At the L.A. Times, we’re working hard to create a bold, 21st-century media organization. I have a great deal of faith in our future, our leadership, and the incredible group of journalists I get to ride cause we are actively experimenting, reorganizing ourselves, and increasing our journalistic and storytelling ambition rather than decreasing it.
Digital subscriptions to The Times have increased by more than 360% since the Soon-Shiongs purchased the newspaper in 2018, confirming the publication’s reputation as one of the most prestigious in the country. In the years since its change in ownership, it has won at least one Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on climate change, politics, and culture. Merida, a former top editor at the Washington Post and ESPN, joined the team last year, and this was a huge coup for the publication.
Just like every other newspaper, it’s a shadow of its former self. More than 1,200 journalists worked for the daily at its peak. Today, the newsroom staff numbers a whopping 550 persons. According to the newspaper, the family has added 20 percent more people to its workforce. However, they were reticent to provide specifics on the Times’ finances beyond the statement that “the firm is still in an investing stage.” The Soon-Songs are helping us get to a point where we can support ourselves.
Journalists at the Times remain pessimistic despite Merida’s assurances, believing the paper is mired in a hopeless limbo between aspiring to be a national player but lacking the readership of its biggest competitors, being eager to adapt to the digital era but unsure of how best to do so, and being blessed with a billionaire benefactor but unclear on his vision.
According to one former Times executive, the Soon-Shiong family “has no understanding of what it takes to operate a media organization” and neither Nik nor her parents have any experience in the field. And in their way, they’ve fought for education. A lot of them don’t give a hoot about the place’s past. They don’t care much about the inner workings of the media.
The Los Angeles Times had been floundering under Tribune Company ownership for years before Patrick Soon-takeover. Shiong’s The newspaper had been unable to compete with more well-funded national outlets.
When the Tribune Company (later Tronc) shut down many of its local businesses around the country, it became a symbol of the newspaper industry’s overall decline. Many looked to Soon-Shiong as a savior because of the new headquarters and substantial investments he promised. On the surface, he claimed to be driven by a sense of civic responsibility. His fiddling would be on the practical, rather than the editorial, side of things.
He watched as his daughter took on a larger role at the newspaper. Following criticism of the daily’s coverage of nonwhite neighborhoods, Stanford graduate and Los Angeles community activist Nika Soon-Shiong became interested in working to improve the paper. She worked as an intern on the photography staff for a while before her father bought the Times.
During the year 2020, Nika Soon-Shiong began taking part in staff meetings where the topics of the paper’s coverage of race and how to be more diverse in hiring were discussed. She advised that the paper refrains from using the word “looting” when reporting on protests over police brutality, prompting editors to revise their style manual.
When Times executives wanted to find more avenues for Nika Soon-Shiong to contribute to the publication, they turned to then-top opinion editor Sewell Chan. He asked her if she’d be interested in contributing to the newspaper’s opinion page. (Chan did not want to elaborate.)
Several members of staff expressed their appreciation for her public rebuttal of a Wall Street Journal piece that said her father was considering selling the paper.
Those upbeat sentiments, however, have all but vanished during the past 12 months. As the younger Soon-political Shiong’s opinions and activism became increasingly evident, some journalists at the Times and prominent political personalities recoiled. At least two Times reporters claimed that Nika Soon-Shiong had pitched them on the commission’s work and complained about headlines after she was appointed to serve on the West Hollywood Public Safety Commission, which advises city administration on public safety measures.
One senior Times reporter expressed confusion on “where Nika starts and the paper stops.”
Previously supportive readers have abandoned the paper because of the new editor, a colleague reports.
Merida addressed employee concerns concerning Nika Soon-Shiong by saying she had “a right to evaluate our journalism, offer story ideas, and other suggestions she believes will help make us better.” In his remarks, he said, “the same right is offered to individuals we cover and those who read us.”
Nika Soon-Shiong, in her own words to POLITICO, has admitted that she does “argue” for her interests, particularly in regards to criminal justice reform and poverty, in her advisory role for the paper. She said, “there are serious flaws with the media’s coverage of safety issues, and these faults sometimes express themselves at the LA Times, just as they do at practically every other major outlet.”
In contrast, she shot off the “idea that I influence the editorial decisions of the paper,” saying, “the judgments are made by independent and experienced journalists based on their own opinion.” In particular, she emphasized that she did not “have a formal function in the LA Times.”
Nika Soon-Shiong, a founder of the nonprofit Fund for Guaranteed Income, which develops methods to make regular cash payments to the poor and otherwise disadvantaged, is listed as a “special consultant” to the Times on the organization about page. Pictures of her profile on the Times’s internal Slack network and her email address from the paper have been widely circulated.
Since Nika Soon-political Shiong’s involvement has increased, the paper has had a more difficult time planning stories that would appeal to both her and her readers. When she argued with an editor on the Metro desk earlier this year about the Times’s coverage of the LAPD, concerns were raised amongst her colleagues.
Staff members were aware that they had missed reporting on the public safety commission’s decision to cut funding for the LA County Sheriff’s Department, a decision she had fought for fiercely and which had received widespread coverage in other Los Angeles sources.
There were murmurs behind the scenes after the paper endorsed Democratic West Hollywood Council member Lindsey Horvath for the influential Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Horvath and Nika Soon-Shiong were close, as evidenced by the fact that Horvath publicly defended Soon-Shiong and claimed that her criticism was “based on racism.” Horvath also played a role in appointing Soon-Shiong to a public safety commission.
Recently, the Times backed a radical and Nika Soon-Shiong favorite for city controller, Kenneth Mejia, who called himself a “radical.” Mejia, a Green Party member, was quoted as saying he thought both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were “sexual predators” in a story written by City Hall reporters David Zahniser and Julia Wick two days after the endorsement.
The paper’s owners can still back anybody they like for an endorsement. This autonomy is frequently used by them. Ms. Merida has stated that Dr. Nika Soon-Shiong has no “say in endorsements.”
However, the impression that Mejia was involved in writing the editorial prompted swift criticism. Democrat and Mejia’s opponent for the City Council seat Paul Koretz said the paper was behaving “as if it were managed by the Mejia campaign itself.”
After hearing the editorial board’s findings, “people are simply scratching their brains,” Koretz told POLITICO. The media has never played such a central role in an election before.
The line, if any, between the Soon-Shiong family’s interests and the journalistic product of the Times remains unclear, notwithstanding Nika Soon-recent Shiong’s public announcement that she would be leaving Los Angeles to seek a doctorate at Oxford University.
The paper’s coverage of the mayoral race in Los Angeles has been a source of private worry among employees. The Times endorsed Democratic Representative Karen Bass, the frontrunner for mayor, in the primary election, where she faced off against billionaire developer Rick Caruso with the support of Nika Soon-Shiong and the encouragement of her father.
The older Soon-Shiong, who is working to make vaccinations on the continent, testified during a congressional hearing on the Covid situation in Africa that Bass presided over in March, before the endorsement.
Bass had stated months earlier that she would be fighting homelessness in the now-vacant St. Vincent Medical Center. Soon-Shiong owns the building, which has been considered for a long time to be suitable for homeless people to live in. After that, in a debate hosted by the Times and KCRW, Bass brought up St. Vincent again. After being told that previous people had problems getting in touch with “the owner,” she said that she would have no trouble doing so.
It’s almost like she became a real estate salesperson for Patrick Soon-Shiong, one Democratic politician involved in the mayoral primary remarked.
Sarah Leonard Sheahan, a spokesman for Rep. Bass’s campaign, said in a statement that their candidate was drawing attention to “an empty hospital right here in Los Angeles she believes may be used to securely and humanely shelter mentally ill homeless Angelenos.”
The situation calls for an “all hands on deck” reaction, Leonard Sheahan said.
The Los Angeles campus of St. Vincent Medical Center
According to Leonard Sheahan, Bass has asked hundreds of witnesses to testify before Congress about health care and human rights on the continent. Staff members invited Mr. Soon Shiong, an African native who had recently established a vaccine factory in Botswana.
In defense of the paper, some Times employees brought out recent articles that took a critical look at Bass’s free degree from USC and other similar topics.
Staff members still believed that Nika Soon-Shiong and her father were Bass’s biggest fans, a belief that was fostered by Bass himself. According to text conversations obtained by POLITICO, one reporter intended to share Caruso’s worries about biased coverage with his editor but instead sent them to Caruso.
Members of the Times employees in other departments were more immediately affected by the dynamic. According to a Times writer acquainted with the situation, Nika Soon-Shiong voiced her anger to Benjamin Oreskes after Oreskes produced an article about Bass’ campaign kickoff in which the title mentioned the absence of an indicted city council member who is a close supporter of Bass. Speak with Bass’ campaign manager, Nika Soon-Shiong suggested the reporter contact him. Even after receiving feedback from readers, the paper maintained the original headline. Oreskes opted out of the further discussion.
Hillary Manning, vice president of communications at the Los Angeles Times, claimed that the Soon-Songs, as owners of the publication, had complete autonomy over all matters. They decided, and have been very public about it ever since the sale was disclosed, that it is crucially important to them, the L.A. Times, and the community at large to keep the newsroom independent. We understand that there is a range of opinions on how much input the Soon-Shiongs should have in running the day-to-day business.
Speculations about Patrick’s Soon-involvement Shiong’s at the Times have been a hot topic among employees for years, with sightings serving as a proxy for the doctor’s dedication to the paper.
Former employees attest that Soon-attention Shiong wavers and that he often acts on impulse. He’s usually busy with other things (he owns the San Diego Union-Tribune and his name has popped up as a potential buyer of the Los Angeles Angels). Due to his heavy workload, he frequently drops in on newspaper issues with grandiose plans for expanding the company or deciding which aspects of news to highlight.
According to the former executive, Soon-Shiong is an “absentee landlord and also a micromanager” who has trouble making decisions.
This is especially true at the time of Covid. Several times workers have voiced concerns that Soon-focus Shiong’s has wavered since the beginning of the outbreak. He confided in the ex-executive that he’d grown “obsessed” with Covid, and told someone else that it was distracting him. Nonetheless, a source close to the situation has said that he has personally reached out to various Times journalists during the pandemic to push them to write specific pieces featuring experts he has worked with on vaccines. This individual went on to say that the reporters and editors felt uneasy throughout these encounters.
According to Manning, Patrick Soon-Shiong “frequently” discusses coverage with the news crew since he cares deeply about so many different issues. At the time of the COVID pandemic’s outbreak, “he has also had interactions with media to highlight the science underlying the virus, worries of protracted COVID, repercussions of mutations, and studies coming out of his native country, South Africa,” stated Manning.
Nonetheless, Manning and Merida denied that Patrick or Nika Soon-Shiong had mandated the publication of any particular articles or commentaries.
For sure, Patrick cares about certain things. Which proprietor wouldn’t want that? Merida remarked, “He has never once demanded that we cover any of his pet topics.” I am the sole arbiter of such matters.
Although Patrick Soon-Shiong saw the request, he did not provide more responses.
In the winter of 2021, he produced a video on Covid on the newspaper’s website, demonstrating the hazy overlap of his interests. There, he seemed to advocate for a vaccine developed by his own company that has yet to receive FDA approval in the United States.
There have been numerous examples of Soon-indecisive Shiong’s micromanaging style. The story goes that he complained to his team about editorials they had written that they thought were too positive towards then-candidate Joe Biden. One of the former executives said, “He couldn’t stand Biden.”
However, Soon-Shiong had difficulty deciding who else to back. Despite repeated attempts by the Times editorial board to pry information out of him on the Democratic candidates for 2020, he remained tight-lipped.
When it came to the primary election, the publication took a pass. There was a general election endorsement for Biden.
It’s been frustrating for longtime readers of The New York Times, who see some signs of progress at the publication mixed in with doubts about the owner’s strategy and dedication.
Professor Gabriel Kahn from the USC Annenberg School of Journalism remarked, “Clearly Patrick Soon-Shiong brought solid ownership to the paper.” There has not been a full-throated description of their editorial objective, nor has there been a clear economic model beyond “newspaper 101,” though this may be evolving.
Merida’s hiring could be considered Soon-greatest Shiong’s success to date. The newsroom as a whole applauded the announcement. Soon-Shiong praised the move as an opportunity to establish long-term viability for the paper (“to expand and be around for another 139 years”) and increase its scope.
As Soon-Shiong put it, “His mandate will be to maintain the greatest level of journalistic strength and create ways to attract the attention of our community, not just Los Angelenos but also readers in the western area and hopefully even the nation.”
After praising Merida’s hire, Soon-Shiong only made things harder for him. According to a source acquainted with the situation, the owner did not call some of the other internal candidates to thank them for applying, which led to some resentment within the newsroom.
Merida seemed to realize that keeping Soon-Shiong interested was crucial. LA Magazine reported that he now resides in a Brentwood guest house just opposite Soon-Shiong. He also took over a large portion of the family’s and staff’s relationship management responsibilities.
Both before and after Merida’s arrival, the paper was praised for its work, such as its reporting on the rise and fall of superlawyer Tom Girardi and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne, its investigation of the Sheriff’s Department, its coverage of climate change, and its coverage of the fatal shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin’s film “Rust.”
Workplace stability, as defined by Soon-Shiong, has proven difficult to achieve, especially at the paper’s Washington bureau.
When Kimbrell Kelly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post, was hired as the D.C. bureau’s chief editor in 2019, the news was met with much fanfare. Kelly was elevated to bureau chief that year, in the fall. She was the second woman and the first person of color to hold that position.
She was tasked with increasing the bureau’s reach and influence through its reporting. Her method, however, quickly led to complications.
Soon after the election, Kelly and Jackie Calmes, a star employee at the agency, butted heads. Around that time, Calmes became the new White House editor. Kelly, though, let her know that she planned to employ her deputy before deciding on a permanent editor. Four people familiar with the situation claim that Kelly called Calmes to complain that her grief at the deaths of two family members was interfering with her employment.
The tensions rose. Kelly denied Calmes’ request for two weeks of compensatory time off in late January, claiming that she had not given her permission to work overtime during the prior three months. That sparked a series of Zoom meetings between Kelly and the HR department and the union.
Kelly stated emphatically during the initial conversation that she had not permitted Calmes to work overtime. Calmes said that the bureau was understaffed during the news cycle that included the ongoing election disputes and the January 6 rioting, and that she had to take up the slack.
According to some who are close to Kelly, Calmes publicly disrespected her. Kelly, a black woman, was a new hire in a predominantly white and male department. Instead of talking to Kelly, Calmes insisted that a union representative be present. Kelly initiated a disciplinary case against Calmes at the beginning of the summer, accusing her of insubordination and implying that it could result in her firing.
After Kelly’s coworkers in Washington D.C. wrote her a letter urging her to recant the insubordination claim, Kelly did so, and the situation was resolved.
After some time working as an editor under Kelly, Calmes moved to the paper’s opinion page. Calmes refused to elaborate, adding only that she had never disrespected Kelly.
Kelly did not comment on the Calmes incident specifically, but she did highlight the diversity initiatives she has implemented in the bureau’s coverage of the White House and Congress.
To bring Kevin Merida and the Soon-Shiong family’s vision for a new Los Angeles Times to fruition, we have assembled one of the city’s most diverse reporting teams, among other things. We’ve had some staff changes, but so have a lot of other news outlets,” she said. And I’m excited to keep leading our Washington coverage and providing for LA Times readers everywhere with the help of our fantastic team.
There is still a lot of tension at the office. Since Kelly took command, at least eight of the bureau’s thirty journalists have left, however, she did say that eight had been hired “within the last year.”
The D.C. bureau held a virtual meeting with Merida and Kelly in March of this year, during which they questioned management about personnel turnover. He was informed by an employee that the mass departure was a “five-alarm fire.” According to a participant in the discussion, Merida did not comment on the paper’s handling of the departures other than to remark that he cared about Washington coverage and was aware that the bureau was having troubles.
After nearly 38 years at the paper, former deputy Washington bureau director Bob Drogin remarked, “They continue to swing much above their weight and the LA Times still covers topics that others in Washington do not.” On the other hand, he said, “It’s regrettable that there’s been so much instability at the bureau over the last two years… Since so many seasoned and skilled reporters have left the Washington bureau, I worry that it has detracted from the bureau’s primary objective and hampered the daily production of news.
Conflicts inside the Times’ Washington, D.C. office are reflective of broader difficulties within the organization as its leadership works to move the newspaper into the digital age.
Former employees have complained about the company’s small engineering team and dated publishing technology, despite Soon-considerable Shiong’s financial resources. According to the ex-executive, the newspaper’s search mechanism is “still quite janky,” and it lacks complete control over its archives because parts of them were given to “other companies” by previous owners.
The editorial priorities have proved confusing to other members of the staff. The paper’s 404 social team, which focuses on creating content for platforms like TikTok and Instagram, was established earlier this year. When the Times came under fire for publishing mocking memes about Caruso that were based on false information, workers flinched.
The Times also made a large investment in a test kitchen that Soon-wife Shiong’s Michele designed to help improve the quality of food served. Other periodicals have had great success with recipe sections. However, the kitchen was rarely used due to the pandemic.
According to Manning, the kitchen is a valuable asset to the Times and its operation does not incur any additional costs as a result. She brought up the fact that the Times also hosts some food and drink events throughout the year, in addition to the country’s largest literary festival. She continued by saying that after the Caruso incident, the 404 has collaborated more closely with the editorial team and multi-platform copy desk.
It is thanks to the “unwavering dedication, investments, and intelligent stewardship of our proprietors” that “the current state and prospects of the Los Angeles Times have been significantly enhanced,” she stated.
Even with all the problems and setbacks, very few people at the Times want to go back to the Tribune/Tronc days. Then, a seemingly continuous succession of budget cuts cast doubt on the papers’ survival. Many current and former employees agree that the skeleton of the institution that was left was much less promising than the one that exists today.
The bar is set low for Times journalists if they need to do better than Tribune/Tronc. They can only hope that Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the paper with too much fanfare, isn’t losing interest and is training the next generation of his family to be responsible stewards in his absence. The Soon-Songs, according to a member of the publishing family most closely associated with the Times’ glory days, have bought into something much bigger than just a newspaper, and they need to better appreciate that the public trust they control is vital to the health of the city, Southern California, and the landscape of journalism as a whole.
According to Harry Chandler, a former executive of the Times, “running a huge metropolitan publication like the Times demands regular inspection, assistance, and encouragement.” And I pray that Patrick and his family return to the way my father Otis and other publishing ancestors of mine ran the paper: with their full and enthusiastic participation.
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