List of Los Angeles Times publishers

Last updated

The publisher of the Los Angeles Times since June 16, 2018, has been Patrick Soon-Shiong, who purchased the newspaper from the Tribune Company of Chicago. Soon-Shiong replaced Ross Levinsohn, who was appointed to the position in August of 2017 following the firing of publisher Davan Maharaj. [1] The publisher is typically a newspaper's top executive, similar in function to the job of corporate chief executive officer. Sometimes, though, a newspaper's publisher is a corporation or a company, and that was the case for decades with the Times, which listed its "publisher" as the Times-Mirror Company. The person responsible for operating the newspaper was officially called the president and general manager, [2] but he was casually referred to as the publisher. [3]

Contents

The official list of past publishers offered by the Times in both print and electronic versions begins with Harrison Gray Otis in 1882, [4] but Otis never held that title officially. Indeed, he was not even the first executive to guide the newspaper.

The list below includes all the people who could be considered the chief executive officer of the newspaper. [5]

Early days

None of these people used the title of publisher.

Harrison Gray Otis

The dates of service are those given in the masthead of the Times. [4]

Chandler family

Post-Chandler

Tribune Company

Private ownership

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<i>Los Angeles Times</i> American daily newspaper covering the Greater Los Angeles area

The Los Angeles Times is a regional American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles area city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States, as well as the largest newspaper in the western United States. Owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by California Times, the paper has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrison Gray Otis (publisher)</span> American newspaper publisher (1837–1917)

Harrison Gray Otis was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War who later became president and general manager of the Times Mirror Company, then the publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Otis Chandler</span> American businesswoman (1866–1952)

Marian Otis Chandler was the secretary and a director of the Times-Mirror Company, which published the Los Angeles Times.

<i>The San Diego Union-Tribune</i> Daily newspaper in San Diego, California

The San Diego Union-Tribune is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, The San Diego Union and the San Diego Evening Tribune. The name changed to U-T San Diego in 2012 but was changed again to The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Levinsohn</span> CEO of Maven, Inc.

Ross B. Levinsohn is an American media executive who has worked in media and technology. He is the former CEO of The Arena Group and Sports Illustrated, and has held senior roles at Yahoo, Fox Interactive and Tribune Publishing, including a brief tenure as publisher of the Los Angeles Times until it was sold in 2018. He became the CEO of Sports Illustrated in October 2019, and CEO of The Arena Group in August 2020. He was fired from these roles in December 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Chandler</span> American newspaper publisher

Norman Chandler was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1945 to 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otis Chandler</span> American newspaper publisher

Otis Chandler was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler family to hold the paper's top position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Chandler</span> American newspaper publisher and real estate businessman

Harry Chandler was an American newspaper publisher and investor who became owner of the largest real estate empire in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Soon-Shiong</span> South African billionaire physician, CEO & philanthropist (b. 1952)

Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African and American businessman, investor, medical researcher, philanthropist, and transplant surgeon. He is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, which became known for its efficacy against lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer. Soon-Shiong is the founder of NantWorks, a network of healthcare, biotech, and artificial intelligence startups; an adjunct professor of surgery and executive director of the Wireless Health Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles; and a visiting professor at Imperial College London and Dartmouth College. Soon-Shiong has published more than 100 scientific papers and has more than 230 issued patents worldwide on advancements spanning numerous fields in technology and medicine.

Franklin Otis Booth Jr. was an American billionaire newspaper executive and investor. He was a Los Angeles Times executive and early investor in Berkshire Hathaway, which made him a billionaire. Booth was also a philanthropist and a great-grandson of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Times.

The Otis family is a Boston Brahmin family from Massachusetts best known for its involvement in early American politics.

Timothy E. Ryan is an American newspaper publisher and businessman. In 2015, Ryan was named publisher and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune. Prior to his position with The Los Angeles Times, beginning in 2007, he served as publisher and chief executive officer of The Baltimore Sun.

Otis is a surname of English origin and may have been a variant spelling of the English name Oates.

<i>Los Angeles Express</i> (newspaper) 19th and 20th century American print newspaper

The Los Angeles Express was a newspaper published in Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1871, the newspaper was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1931. It merged with the Los Angeles Herald and became an evening newspaper known as the Los Angeles Herald-Express. A 1962 combination with Hearst's morning Los Angeles Examiner resulted in its final incarnation as the evening Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

Harrison Gray Otis may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliza Ann Otis</span> American poet, journalist and philanthropist

Eliza Ann Otis, née Wetherby, was an American poet, journalist, and philanthropist. She was the co-founder, publisher, and associate editor of the Los Angeles Times.

Nathan Cole Jr. (1860–1921) was one of the two founders of the Los Angeles Daily Times, now the Los Angeles Times. The son of Nathan Cole, a wealthy St. Louis, Missouri, politician and banker, he was 21 years old in 1881 when he and a colleague, Thomas Gardiner, put together the first issues of the new venture to be printed on the presses of the Mirror Publishing Company. Later he was a real estate man and a Los Angeles city police commissioner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. J. Mathes</span> Journalist and printer

Samuel Jay Mathes (1849?–1927), known as S. J. Mathes, was a pioneer printer and newspaperman in Los Angeles, California, who in 1881 and 1882 directed the editorial policies of the newly established Los Angeles Daily Times, which later became the Los Angeles Times, until General Harrison Gray Otis took over in August 1882. Mathes later became, in effect, a tour operator for visitors to Southern California aboard Pullman sleeping cars from the East

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Lind Alles</span> American businessman and civic leader (1851-1945)

Fred Lind Alles was a businessman and civic leader in Los Angeles, California, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, serving as secretary or other officer for various committees and for the National Irrigation Congress.

Davan Maharaj is a journalist and the former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

References

Access to some of these links may require the use of a library card.

  1. James, Meg (August 22, 2017). "Ross Levinsohn is named the new publisher and CEO of the L.A. Times as top editors are ousted". Los Angeles Times .
  2. "Gen. Harrison Gray Otis Is Suddenly Called by Death". Los Angeles Times . July 31, 1917. ProQuest   160451502.
  3. "The Memorial". Los Angeles Times . February 18, 1896. ProQuest   163773579.
  4. 1 2 "L.A. Times Masthead". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on October 30, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  5. "Former publishers". Los Angeles Times . March 2, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 "Highlights Along the Way". Los Angeles Times . January 3, 1956. ProQuest   166908993.
  7. 1 2 "Fourteen Years of Progress". Los Angeles Times . December 4, 1895. ProQuest   163713804.
  8. "Miss Katherine Yarnell, Southland Pioneer, Dies". Los Angeles Times . February 17, 1948. ProQuest   165802893.
  9. "Notice to the Public". Los Angeles Times . December 11, 1881. ProQuest   161114864.
  10. Silverstein, Stuart; Leeds, Jeff (June 4, 1999). "Downing is Named Publisher of The Times". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 8, 2016.