Tronc said to be near $500M sale of LA Times

TRONC, the parent of the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune, is close to a deal to sell both papers to billionaire Dr.

Patrick Soon-Shiong., for a reported $500 million, according to numerous reports.

The story was first reported by the Washington Post.

Soon-Shiong, the second-largest shareholder in Tronc, whose holdings include the Chicago Tribune and the money-draining New York Daily News, was once an ally of Tronc Chairman Michael Ferro, but more recently the two have feuded.

The likely sale comes at a time of upheaval for the LA paper as its publisher remains suspended pending a sexual harassment investigation and its just-installed editor-in-chief, Jim Kirk, is its third leader in less than a year.

Journalists at the LA Times recently voted to unionize for the first time in the paper’s 137-year history.

Farrow’s tale

Ronan Farrow, one of the most famous journalists in the country at the moment, wowed the crowd at the American Magazine Media Conference on Tuesday as he told of the harrowing 10-month investigation behind the explosive sexual harassment story on Harvey Weinstein that appeared in The New Yorker.

The October story helped ignite the national #metoo movement that is still upending the entertainment and media worlds.

In an interview with Gayle King, Farrow said that, over the course of the investigation, he had numerous contacts with Weinstein — on background, in person and with handlers and lawyers. But he said when he went to do the final on-the-record interview, he made sure he did not leave an opening for the classic Weinstein gambit — the offer of a book deal.

“I just called and said, ‘This is Ronan Farrow and I’d like to speak with Harvey Weinstein,’ ” Farrow recalled.

There was a long pause and Weinstein’s assistant said he would get back.

While Farrow said there was warning from sources that he was in dangerous territory taking on the Hollywood kingmaker with a known streak for revenge, he shrugged it off.

“That’s the job I signed up to do,” he said, adding that “Condé Nast [parent of The New Yorker] has very good security.” But he declined to elaborate on the nature of any threats.

Farrow said very early on, in January 2017 — while still working on the story for NBC, which ultimately declined to run it — he had an on-therecord interview with Rose McGowan, who alleged she had been raped by Weinstein.

The New York Times actually had the first explosive story on Weinstein’s harassment, beating his New Yorker story by four days.

The New Yorker Editor-in-Chief David Remnick ultimately decided not to rush the story — or the factchecking — just to beat the Times.

“It ended up being two very different stories,” Farrow said.

While the Times had anecdotes from a decade of alleged harassment, his article had allegations of actual rape on the record.

Despite repeated efforts by King, Farrow demurred when asked to reveal the topic for his next New Yorker article — now going through final edits.

“It’s not about Weinstein,” was all he would reveal.

Farrow also has a book due out in late April from Norton entitled “War on Peace,” about how the US diplomatic corps has been degraded in recent years as much of the foreignpolicy decision-making in world trouble spots gets off-loaded to the Pentagon and generals.

Mis-LinkedIn

Former Time Inc. folks erupted in fury at LinkedIn in the days following the $2.8 billion takeover of the publisher by Meredith because the traditional blue Time Inc. logo was replaced on the social network with the atomized symbol for Meredith.

Even those who had worked for Time Inc. years before the Meredith takeover had the logo of the Des Moines, Iowa-based company sit beside their mention of their Time Inc. experience.

“Dear LinkedIn, please give me my old Time Inc. logo back!” wrote Tammy Berentson, an associate dean of marketing at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. “Meredith may have bought the company, but they did not buy my experience, my memories, our history. Fix it!”

Berentson left Time Inc. in April 2016 — nearly two years before the Meredith takeover.

Added Jose R. Perez, who worked at Time from 2008 to 2011, “Wiped from history like a bad Civil War memorial or a Holocaust denier! Not acceptable to erase the experience of thousands of professionals who literally built Time Inc. into the world’s greatest publisher.”

A Meredith spokesman insisted it was not their doing. “This is a LinkedIn thing — we can’t do anything about it.” But many former Time Inc. staffers remain skeptical.

Rodale and Wenner Media, two companies that were also sold, still have their own corporate logos in place on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn had not responded for comment by press time.