Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Still waiting for Soon-Shiong

What will he do with La Jolla Light?

U-T architecture reporter Roger Showley will volunteer for UCSD and Balboa Park
U-T architecture reporter Roger Showley will volunteer for UCSD and Balboa Park

More layoffs in Chicago and a noteworthy retirement in San Diego have sowed concerns about the pace of takeover by Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong of the Union-Tribune and its big sister, the L.A. Times.

First reported by Midwest media blogger Robert Feder, the newsroom of the Chicago Tribune, owned by the peculiarly-named tronc, took a surprise hit March 15, as a raft of editorial employees were called in one by one to get walking papers.

“Everyone who walks out of the newsroom with their things gets a round of applause,” Tribune reporter Peter Nickeas wrote on Twitter. “Nobody has communicated to the newsroom about what’s going on.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Explained a statement from Marisa Kollias, tronc's vice president of communications and public relations, "The newsroom is redefining jobs and structure so that people are in the best position to create and deliver news content for the rapidly changing demands of our audience.”

Per Feder, the Chicago layoffs, the number of which was unannounced, was the second such bloodletting in five months, as tronc tries to become "more nimble, more entrepreneurial, more responsive to our readers’ current interests and permanent passions,” in the words of a statement by Tribune publisher and editor-in-chief Bruce Dold.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles and San Diego, word is awaited regarding the $500-million-plus deal between tronc and physician Soon-Shiong for the Times-and U-T, announced February 7.

During a March 7 conference call with Wall Street analysts, tronc chief financial officer Terry Jimenez said that the Times/U-T takeover was "imminent," adding "Our hope is that it closes in days and weeks, versus months, but we are moving as fast as we can.”

Federal regulators did their part by granting quick approval for a fast transfer, though some details, including Soon-Shiong's continued operation of a string of small San Diego County papers, including the La Jolla Light, have remained unclarified.

"I know that everyone will have many questions about the future. I hope to have some answers when we meet soon," wrote Soon-Shiong in a February 7 memo to Times and U-T employees. "I want to assure you — everyone from the press room to the newsroom — that I will work to ensure that you have the tools and resources to produce the high-quality journalism that our readers need and rely upon," he wrote.

Locals hope that their new owner will bolster employment during a rebuilding effort, as stalwart full-page retail advertisers, including Mor Furniture, Ortho Mattress, and car dealers, vanish from the pages.

A delay or collapse of the Soon-Shiong purchase could spell the end of the U-T, which has been losing employees. The latest example of the thinning of U-T ranks comes with the retirement of reporter and local author Roger Showley, marking the end of more than four decades with the Union and its successor Union-Tribune.

"Roger has written thousands of great articles over the years showcasing San Diego's built environment," notes the invitation to A Toast to Roger Showley on April 3, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the San Diego Architectural Foundation, among others. "Come raise a glass in good cheer for all the wonderful writing that he has done for all of our land use organizations."

Showley, a third generation San Diegan and author of several books on history, design, and development here, including San Diego: Perfecting Paradise and Balboa Park: A Millennium History, said he would devote his retirement to volunteer work for UCSD, his alma mater, and Balboa Park. His beat is being assumed by Phillip Molnar, a real estate and business writer at the paper.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
U-T architecture reporter Roger Showley will volunteer for UCSD and Balboa Park
U-T architecture reporter Roger Showley will volunteer for UCSD and Balboa Park

More layoffs in Chicago and a noteworthy retirement in San Diego have sowed concerns about the pace of takeover by Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong of the Union-Tribune and its big sister, the L.A. Times.

First reported by Midwest media blogger Robert Feder, the newsroom of the Chicago Tribune, owned by the peculiarly-named tronc, took a surprise hit March 15, as a raft of editorial employees were called in one by one to get walking papers.

“Everyone who walks out of the newsroom with their things gets a round of applause,” Tribune reporter Peter Nickeas wrote on Twitter. “Nobody has communicated to the newsroom about what’s going on.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

Explained a statement from Marisa Kollias, tronc's vice president of communications and public relations, "The newsroom is redefining jobs and structure so that people are in the best position to create and deliver news content for the rapidly changing demands of our audience.”

Per Feder, the Chicago layoffs, the number of which was unannounced, was the second such bloodletting in five months, as tronc tries to become "more nimble, more entrepreneurial, more responsive to our readers’ current interests and permanent passions,” in the words of a statement by Tribune publisher and editor-in-chief Bruce Dold.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles and San Diego, word is awaited regarding the $500-million-plus deal between tronc and physician Soon-Shiong for the Times-and U-T, announced February 7.

During a March 7 conference call with Wall Street analysts, tronc chief financial officer Terry Jimenez said that the Times/U-T takeover was "imminent," adding "Our hope is that it closes in days and weeks, versus months, but we are moving as fast as we can.”

Federal regulators did their part by granting quick approval for a fast transfer, though some details, including Soon-Shiong's continued operation of a string of small San Diego County papers, including the La Jolla Light, have remained unclarified.

"I know that everyone will have many questions about the future. I hope to have some answers when we meet soon," wrote Soon-Shiong in a February 7 memo to Times and U-T employees. "I want to assure you — everyone from the press room to the newsroom — that I will work to ensure that you have the tools and resources to produce the high-quality journalism that our readers need and rely upon," he wrote.

Locals hope that their new owner will bolster employment during a rebuilding effort, as stalwart full-page retail advertisers, including Mor Furniture, Ortho Mattress, and car dealers, vanish from the pages.

A delay or collapse of the Soon-Shiong purchase could spell the end of the U-T, which has been losing employees. The latest example of the thinning of U-T ranks comes with the retirement of reporter and local author Roger Showley, marking the end of more than four decades with the Union and its successor Union-Tribune.

"Roger has written thousands of great articles over the years showcasing San Diego's built environment," notes the invitation to A Toast to Roger Showley on April 3, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the San Diego Architectural Foundation, among others. "Come raise a glass in good cheer for all the wonderful writing that he has done for all of our land use organizations."

Showley, a third generation San Diegan and author of several books on history, design, and development here, including San Diego: Perfecting Paradise and Balboa Park: A Millennium History, said he would devote his retirement to volunteer work for UCSD, his alma mater, and Balboa Park. His beat is being assumed by Phillip Molnar, a real estate and business writer at the paper.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Pie pleasure at Queenstown Public House

A taste of New Zealand brings back happy memories
Next Article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader