Patrick Soon-Shiong and Kevin Merida share their vision for the future of the Los Angeles Times

Reliable Sources

CNN

News

3.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2021

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In their first joint interview, Los Angeles Times owner and executive chairman Patrick Soon-Shiong and newly-appointed executive editor Kevin Merida join Brian Stelter and answer questions about the future of the publication. "We're competing for subscriptions" and competing for peoples' time and money, Merida says. "I want to be the most exciting, innovative media company that exists, anchored out in California." He talks about expanding into new areas, from comedy to poetry, and turning the publication into a much larger media company. Soon-Shiong reaffirms his commitment to the outlet; addresses his role in Alden Global Capital's takeover of Tribune Publishing; and shares his view of what the government should do to balance the local news playing field. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What is the future of the Los Angeles Times?
0:05.4	What is owner Patrick Sounchong's vision for the paper?
0:09.7	And how will it become more than a newspaper?
0:13.4	What will brand new executive editor Kevin Merida bring to the publication?
0:18.9	Those are a few of the questions for this week's Reliable Sources podcast.
0:23.2	So let's cue the music.
0:26.0	Brian Stelter and this Weekly Reliable Sources podcast
0:29.6	is our chance to go in depth with media leaders and newsmakers.
0:35.2	In this week we have two big newsmakers joining the conversation.
0:39.7	This is the first joint interview with Patrick Sounchong
0:43.1	who bought the Los Angeles Times three years ago
0:46.3	and his hand-picked editor, Kevin Merida, who just joined the beginning of June
0:51.6	from ESPN's The Undefeated.
0:54.2	This has been a closely watched hire.
0:57.0	There was a lot of intrigue about who would be tapped to run the Los Angeles Times
1:02.7	and what the future potential of the paper is.
1:07.6	The Los Angeles Times, of course, is a nationally known brand
1:11.2	but in the digital subscription battle, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal,
1:17.1	others are quite a bit ahead of the Los Angeles Times.
1:20.8	There are fears and concerns that the LA Times
1:24.7	will end up being an also ran of sorts.
1:28.3	So what's the vision?
	...

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