Saving the news media means moving beyond the benevolence of billionaires

Billionaire media owners can’t change inhospitable market dynamics. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images by Rodney Benson, New York University and Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania For the journalism industry, 2024 is off to a brutal start. Most spectacularly, the Los Angeles Times recently slashed more than 20% of its newsroom. Though trouble had long been brewing, the layoffs were particularly disheartening because many employees and readers hoped the Times’ billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, would stay the course in good times and bad – that he would be a steward less interested in turning a profit and more concerned with ensuring the storied publication could serve the public. According to the LA Times, Soon-Shiong explained that the cuts were necessary because the paper “could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year.” As one X user pointed out, Soon-Shiong could weather US$40 million in annual losses for decades and still remain a billionaire. You could say the same of another billionaire owner, The Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos, who eliminated hundreds of jobs in 2023 after making a long stretch of steady investments. https://x.com/_cingraham/status/1749890710118301751?s=20 Of course, it helps if your owner has deep pockets and is satisfied with...