What will the sale of the San Diego Union Tribune mean?
A lot of people who work in the field of journalism and who teach journalism have been talking about this week. And a lot of the people who read the Union Tribune in print or on line are talking about it.
Some of the talk is that the sale of the newspaper, that has been owned by Tronc, a huge corporation based in Chicago, to Southern Californian biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong will be good for the Union Tribune.
He lives in L-A and He has a lot of money first off. In fact they say he may be the richest guy in L-A. So he knows Southern California.
Others say that because he is also buying the Los Angeles Times, the larger and more historically prestigious newspaper, he might decide to merge the two papers with a slant toward L-A and give the newspaper a more regional Southern California identity.
But in an exclusive interview with the Editorial Director of the San Diego Union Tribune this week, Matt Hall said it doesn’t sound like it. Hall told me that a message that the new owner sent to staff this week after the announcement was encouraging when it comes to the future of the Union Tribune.
He pointed out that the new owner knows San Diego well and knows how different we are from L-A.
Of course right now it’s all talk about what could happen. But at a time when Americans need more information about their country and their community, we need more strong sources of local news not fewer.
So it will be much better for San Diego if the Union Tribune becomes stronger. And that’s not fake news.