LA Times Owner: I’m Very Comfortable Still With The Decision Not To Endorse Kamala Harris
MEGYN KELLY SHOW: Megyn Kelly is joined by Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, CEO of Los Angeles Times Media Group, to talk about why he stopped his paper from publishing their Kamala Harris endorsement, his reaction to the fallout, his decision to take the LA Times public and give power to the audience, and more.
MEGYN KELLY: Billionaires are in your club, that’s who you hang out with, that’s who you care about, and [Kamala] she’s very disappointed in you. DR. PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: Well, I’m sad that she’s disappointed, but I said in response that really one should take responsibility, and that’s really the issue. We made the decision. Well I made the decision, yes, we shouldn’t endorse her because I didn’t believe, frankly, that she would be competent as the President of the United States. And that was a decision we made, and I think I’m very comfortable still with that decision. MK: How bad was the blowback at the LA Times when you said, We’re not going to endorse her? DR. PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: Pretty bad. We lost a lot of viewers and the editorial board, most of them, in fact, I don’t think anybody is still there, they all resigned. And I said, In order to lead, you need to lead. And you truly need to have courage of your convictions. And that was our conviction. DR. PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: We’re going to the next step, and I’ll announce on your show today. Big announcement, tomorrow we are opening the Los Angeles Times Media Group, private placement, IPO. MK: Wow. Why is that important to you? DR. PATRICK SOON-SHIONG: Because I’m changing the platform. When I bought it… I had already realized that the paper in itself, in the sense of printed, we’re going from the ink to digital revolution, and I’m all about technology. So I started building a completely new software platform called Graphene that could take podcast media streaming all the way to the printing press to Slack, integrated into one platform. People thought it was crazy. Started an entire system called Graphene, and then launched the building of a test kitchen, a podcast rooms, a studio, broadcast studio, and then NAND studio, which is the most sophisticated LED volume and gaming all the way to eSports and integrating that on one platform. The idea is to engage an audience, whether you Millennials all the way to who love to touch paper. We have the e-newspaper. So could we build a single platform that would be open to all audiences and really be in a form that educates, informs and inspires? That’s now the LA Times, Media Group, four, brands, one engine.
