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Los Angeles Times
Stand fast, stand firm, stand sure, stand true.
—Colonel Harrison Gray Otis
Circulation 762,000 mornings. 1,100,000 Sundays. Independent-Republican. Has endorsed Republicans for President since 1932.
Many of the Los Angeles Times's proudest achievements lie behind it, the work of a fiery Union Army colonel who charged into the city in the 1880s. From the editor's desk chair, Harrison Gray Otis directed Los Angeles' destiny as if that stretch of parched Western littoral were his private command. His editorials helped break the railroads' throttle hold on the city; his campaigns got a harbor built and brought desperately needed water 240 miles over the mountains from the Owens River. Before Otis died, the Times was a dominant Los Angeles institution. Like all institutions, it stood in danger of succumbing to the temptations of complacency. But Otis Chandler, 36, the Times's new publisher and the colonel's great-grandson, is determined to keep the Times as viable as the burgeoning community it patrols. The disjointed collection of patio grills and palm-fringed superhighways is not a newspaper-reading community; recent mergers have reduced its newspaper census from four to two. But the Times remains a local necessity. In Chandler's three years at the top, he has raised the editorial budget by 60%; an expanded news staff now spreads over eight foreign capitals. Today the Times covers big international stories with the same craftsmanship that it has long applied to the Southern California scene.
The Courier-Journal
Our role is to inform, but in addition to enlighten and persuade.
—George Barry Bingham
Circulation 225,000 mornings. 329,000 Sundays. Independent-Democrat. Has supported Democrats for President since 1932.