Newsonomics: NPR’s Ross Levinsohn Scoop Delivers A Double Blow To Tronc

On the same afternoon that NPR’s David Folkenflik was to release his scoop on Los Angeles Times publisher Ross Levinsohn’s alleged history of workplace harassment, Levinsohn himself delivered a manifesto of sorts on Tronc’s strategy. Speaking to the Needham Growth Conference ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Inside L.A.’s Journalistic Collapse

How far is The Post from Los Angeles? Figure almost 50 years, as well as 3,000 miles. While big audiences and the remaining fully paid journalists can delight in the triumphant Spielbergian tale of The Washington Post’s decision to follow The New York Times in publishing the Pentagon Papers in ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Can A New Management Team Soothe The Roiled Los Angeles Times Newsroom?

In the midst of a union organizing vote, new Los Angeles Times editor-in-chief Lewis D’Vorkin is moving forward with a sweeping reorganization of the Times newsroom. He will, I’ve learned from numerous sources, soon announce three new top hires — all from outside a newsroom in turmoil. Those ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Can The L.A. Times Pull From the Washington Post Playbook?

Pay up. News readers get that message more and more frequently these days, as big news sites tighten up their paywalls, allowing fewer free articles per month. While The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as The New Yorker and The Atlantic, have won the big Trump Bump digital ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Tronc & The Daily News, What To Make Of This Out-Of-The Blue Buy

For much of the winter and spring, Michael Ferro was uncharacteristically quiet. Once he’d defeated Gannett’s hostile takeover attempt of his newly named Tronc, Ferro seemed to cease being the center of the news industry storm. Some applauded; others privately told me they missed ...

Read More

Chicago Sun-Times’ Fate Could Be Decided Soon

In Chicago, as post-Independence Day week unfolds, the countdown to the bedrock event in the Chicago Sun-Times’ future begins. While most cities’ last-standing largest dailies have a hard time telling you how they plan to be big and strong a decade from now, the second daily in ...

Read More

The Sun-Times, Tronc and The Eisendrath Group: What’s The Number?

What’s the number? What’s the real number? That’s what the competition for the Chicago Sun-Times comes down to this week, and probably into next. On Monday, the Edwin Eisendrath group upped its ante to $15 million, drawing together would-be funding from a Chicago-only ...

Read More

Will Tronc Get Squeezed Out of a Sun-Times Acquisition?

Credit the Cubbies. The Chicago Sun-Times, long the struggling second newspaper of the city, managed to about break even in 2016, even as the fortunes of the overall newspaper business took a turn for the worse. Why? In strong part, the Chicago Cubs broke their curse, and with a heroic World ...

Read More

Michael Ferro’s Tronc Aims to Complete Chicago Domination With Sun-Times Purchase

Update: Final bids for the Sun-Times are now due on June 5: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-tronc-sun-times-deal-other-buyers-0601-biz-20170531-story.html   While Tronc chairman Michael Ferro has enjoyed the celebrity allure of his largest paper, the Los Angeles Times, it is in ...

Read More

Tronc’s Latest Fusillade Targeting Soon-Shiong Gets to Core Question

Only one mystery is resolved. We now know what the much-ridiculed Tronc (TRNC) name means: acrimony. Tronc re-engaged in a war of words Thursday morning, as it told its now disgruntled, soon-to-be-ex Vice Chairman Patrick Soon-Shiong to put up or shut up in a new letter from its attorney, Yosef ...

Read More