Dodgers Owner Exploring Purchase of L.A. Times

The controlling owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers is interested in purchasing the Los Angeles Times.

The Times’ Bill Shaikin reported on Friday that Mark Walter, who is the chief executive of the Guggenheim Partners group that put up much of the money to purchase the Dodgers, did not believe buying the Times would be a bad investment. As the Times noted, Guggenheim Partners has already “acquired Billboard magazine, the Hollywood Reporter and Dick Clark Productions.”

“The Los Angeles Times says something,” Walter said before the Dodgers played the Boston Red Sox on Friday at Dodger Stadium. “It means something. It’s a brand. I think people have undervalued that. If the price were right, I would buy it.”

Walter may reportedly be interested in the Chicago Tribune as well and added that he wanted both publications to “be strong.”

He insisted that if he were to buy the Times he would allow the reporters to cover the team critically. 

“I can’t tell you what to write,” he said. 

Other baseball owners have owned papers in the cities in which their teams play. Red Sox owner John Henry recently bought the Boston Globe from the New York Times and the Tribune Co. owned the Cubs for nearly three decades. 

Tribune, which owns the Times and emerged from bankruptcy last year, is reportedly looking to sell the paper and possible buyers reportedly include Eli Broad, the owner of the Orange County Register, and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. The Koch Brothers were interested in purchasing the publication but are now reportedly no longer interested.