LA Times Moving To El Segundo, Leaving Downtown HQ
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles Times is departing its iconic downtown L.A. headquarters and moving to El Segundo, according to reports from newsroom journalists and the paper itself.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire who is buying the Times from Chicago-based Tronc for $500 million, informed employees of the impending move this morning. The Times' current home, a 1935 art deco building near City Hall, is roughly 19 miles from the city of El Segundo.
Soon-Shiong told the New York Times that his ideas for the new headquarters include "lots of light, a day care center [and] a museum to honor the newspaper's history and modern technology," and plans to eventually open the facility to the public. It's unclear how many of those goals will be met when the L.A. Times' lease on the downtown building ends on June 30.
Soon-Shiong's purchase of the Times was first announced in February. The deal would return the 136-year-old newspaper to local ownership for the first time since the Tribune Company (later renamed Tronc) bought it in 2000, although the NYT reports that the sale is not final, and that negotiations have "dragged."
Former editor-in-chief Lewis D'Vorkin was among several dozen Tronc employees fired Thursday morning due to what the L.A. Times calls "a change in the company's business strategy."
