Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times, born in 1881 out of the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles by Nathaniel Hawthorne's distant relative, is the grand dame of Southern California journalism. Known for its sprawling coverage of the entertainment industry and relentless pursuit of the Hollywood glitterati, it has been the West Coast's answer to The New York Times—minus the subways and bagels, but with a whole lot more palm trees and plastic surgery. It achieved its peak in the 1960s, but the ensuing decades have seen it tumble through a series of ownership scandals and financial crises, from the departure of the Chandler family in the 2000s to the dark days under Tribune Publishing's stewardship. Current valuation? It's a slippery figure—worth about $400 million as of the last reports, yet still wrestling with its relevance in the digital age. Acclaimed for Pulitzer Prizes and occasionally infamous for scandals like the 2015 newsroom shake-up, it’s managed to stay in the limelight—often for reasons other than its journalism. Under the late CEO and publisher Sam Zell, it desperately tried to reinvent itself, as if searching for a script where it’s no longer the tragicomic relic but rather the star of a redemption arc.