Eli Broad Wants to Buy Los Angeles Times (Again)

First Magic Johnson and Guggenheim Baseball purchase the Dodgers from the dreaded Frank McCourt.

Now local billionaire Eli Broad is once again teasing us with the possibility that he could buy the Los Angeles Times and kick its loathed ownership — the Tribune Co. and its tard of a chairman, Sam Zell — to the curb.

L.A. would be on quite a lucky streak:

In an interview this week with the Times Broad, who made much of his money from residential real estate development before becoming a philanthropist and noted art collector, indicates that he'll take a crack at the paper when Tribune Co. emerges from bankruptcy, likely this year.

He thinks Zell will put the publication up for sale. In his forthcoming book The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking, he writes:

Broad and wife Edythe.; Credit: Broad Foundation

This time around the price should be better and the advantages of local ownership clear to all.

The paper asked him about it, and Broad responded that he would like to “partner with others … maybe foundations or wealthy families” to snap up the Times.

He tried that in 2007 and was beaten out by … Zell.

Unfortunately, Zell had to borrow so much money to buy Tribune Co. that it has been drowning in his red ink and shedding journalists pretty much since the day Zell entered the picture.

Plus, he's a journalistic know-nothing tool who put know-nothing tools like Lee Abrams in positions of power at the company.

The Times went from having 1,500 editorial employees at its peak in the mid-1990s to 500 today.

But if the publication was to set sail on its own tomorrow, it would still be profitable — and it would still be a journalistic treasure.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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