LA Times to operate bureaus in Seoul, Singapore

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, says the paper has reopened its Seoul bureau and started a bureau in Singapore. 

Beyond those expansions, the paper is hiring for its Washington bureau, Soon-Shiong told attendees of TheWrap’s annual media conference TheGrill, Oct. 2 in Los Angeles, the Poynter Institute reported. 

Soon-Shiong bought the Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union Tribune earlier this year.

According to a tweet from Mitchell Landsberg, the LA Times national/foreign editor, the Singapore office will be opened by Shashank Bangali and David Pierson, while Victoria Kim will open the Seoul bureau. Kim had been covering Koreatown in Los Angeles. 

Soon-Shiong also said he overpaid for the papers. “It wasn’t the money. It wasn’t the business. It was, ‘Do we want this paper (the LA Times) to exist or not?’” Soon-Shiong said he’s put $100 million into the paper.

News and Tech