Ex-U-T Editor and Publisher Jeff Light Reveals How He Left, Where He Went

Just over a year ago, Jeff Light left The San Diego Union-Tribune as editor and publisher after a 13-year tenure under five owners.

Biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong had just sold the paper to a “vulture” hedge fund’s subsidiary called MediaNews Group, sparking detailed reporting on the new publisher and its reputation.

But how did Light go? That didn’t come to light.

Now we know, thanks to his first published comments since his sudden exit on July 20, 2023.

Light, 63, told Times of San Diego that he had a contract that basically gave him a buyout option.

“When there is a contract in place, terms are spelled out in advance,” he said in a wide-ranging interview. “I had an employment contract that defined my role. That was going to change under the new ownership, which entitled me to severance.”

His San Diego life was severed as well.

He and his wife, Orange County Register reporter Teri Sforza, sold their house in Ocean Beach in 2022 “after values shot up and the Fed began raising rates. I was afraid the housing market would crash and we’d never be able to sell for retirement. We rented in Bankers Hill after that.”

Light now lives in Laguna Beach.

“We’ve owned a place here since 2004,” he said. “My wife works in OC, and the lease in San Diego was up last fall.”

Now retired, he likes to listen to a book, go for a run, walk the dogs and take his daughter to school.

“There also has been a lot of work to do on this house,” he said. “Twelve years as a rental takes a toll.”

He reads The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and the Substack by elections watcher Nate Silver.

“I listen to The Daily and the 538 podcast,” Light adds. “I still read the U-T, but not every day. It’s different when you are no longer in town. Here, I read the OC Register. Teri Sforza is my favorite local news writer.”

His go-to place for local news is the online Stu News Laguna Beach,

“Journalism doesn’t always have to be a great intellectual undertaking or a high achievement of tech or design,” Light says. “I just want to know what’s going on around me.”

But he avoids Facebook, X and the like.

“Not a social media enthusiast,” he says. But he’s reading the novel “Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver.

Son of the late Buffalo News editor Murray Light, Jeff studied poetry and creative writing at Brown University and earned an MBA from UC Irvine. He was deputy editor, then vice president for interactive publishing, at the Register, where he worked from 1993 to 2010.

This interview was conducted by email.

Times of San Diego: You arrived during Platinum Equity and endured the Doug Manchester years, which saw the loss of some star reporters and at least one columnist (Tim Sullivan). Did you ever push back on his using the paper for business and political agendas? Ever consider quitting?

Jeff Light: I liked working for Platinum. They employed clear-eyed, straightforward businesspeople. They had run a lot of different kinds of companies, and they knew what it took to turn the place around.

Manchester’s group was different. He seemed to be surrounded by two sorts of people: accomplished people who had helped him build his fortune or had built their own, and opportunists who were trying to get their hands into his pockets. The latter were extremely tiresome to be around.

Those were trying times. I considered other offers.

Did you ever address Manchester as “Papa Doug”?

Yes. Not an issue for me.

What behind-the-scenes efforts did you make to limit layoffs under your leadership? What were your hardest editorial decisions?

I think that early in my time in San Diego a lot of people probably saw me as a person who was cutting too much, and then as the years passed and we were able to stabilize things I probably got more credit than I deserved.

These aren’t the easiest companies to run. If you are a big player like Gannett, you are going to try to centralize as much as possible to get local costs down. It’s a risky move because these are profoundly local businesses, but they almost have no choice. Anyone running that company would do the same thing.

On the other hand, if you are a smart, successful benefactor, you are going to try to recruit all the best minds in the business to outthink the rest of us. Again, who wouldn’t? But that’s risky, too, because you end up throwing all sorts of money at the problem unnecessarily.

I tried to steer sort of a middle course, keeping as big a newsroom as we could within the bounds of frugality.

You also saw three U-T reporters named San Diego SPJ Journalists of the Year — Jeff McDonald, Morgan Cook, Paul Sisson and freelancer Kelly Davis. How did you fend off any critics of their work, especially local politicians?

Every reporter is subject to efforts to undermine their work. I remember with Morgan, people from Duncan Hunter’s circle — people who absolutely knew what Hunter was up to — these insiders would do me the favor of letting me know, confidentially, that Morgan was way off base. In other words, they would flat out lie to try to get her off the case. It was pretty transparent.

With Kelly’s jail death work, Bill Gore very early on shared with me his perspective that Kelly was reading the data incorrectly. I spent a lot of hours with those spreadsheets to be sure I really knew the numbers, and it turned out that Kelly was right and Gore was wrong. The Sheriff’s Department for years tried to discredit Kelly’s work, but everyone who had spent time with the facts knew that was disinformation, and we were able to say so.

With Jeff and other good reporters I’d hear from people who were outraged, furious that he dared to question them. But that’s our job. We ask questions.

Did the U-T have any sacred cows during your tenure — stories or subjects you wouldn’t explore?

No.

What were the circumstances of your departure? Did you quit, take a buyout or get laid off? Are you under an NDA or a no-disparagement agreement? No-compete clause?

I had an employment contract that defined my role. That was going to change under the new ownership, which entitled me to severance. I’m obligated to protect business secrets and not to disparage the company.

People on the left and right have always found fault with the U-T. What efforts did you make to preserve the U-T’s independence or persuade readers of your fairness?

The U-T under the Copley family had been a Republican newspaper. It listed itself as “Republican” in the E&P yearbook. That didn’t seem like a good idea to me. I wanted the U-T to find a less predictable, less partisan approach to the community.

In 2011, we began a community editorial board. Later, we put in a broader advisory council and remade our opinion department with more emphasis on the community and less on our own ideas. We spent a lot of time trying to align our local sponsorships and partnerships under a broader tent. I came to believe that building community trust was the top business priority facing media companies like ours.

In recent years, comments on stories have become vitriolic. In February, the U-T disabled comments. Did you agree with this or consider this during your tenure?

I like the idea of comments. Without them, journalists control how to frame the story and whose voices to include. That always feels suffocating to me.

Alas, comments, like social media, haven’t always lived up to their promise. It’s as if the Old Globe said: “Hey, while we try to perform this play, could we please have all the most abrasive, self-involved and/or sanctimonious blowhards in the audience jump in?” It really hasn’t worked out.

What do you think of the quality of the journalism at the U-T since your departure?

It looks fine.

You once said: “The Union-Tribune is a profitable business and also profitable … in the right way.” Can you share how profitable?

We had a pretty good record at the U-T. I’ll leave it at that. We all found out through the sale that there was someone else who believed they could make it more profitable.

What words of advice do you have for your successor, Lora Cicalo? Did you recommend Lora as your successor?

Lora is an impressive journalist who doesn’t need advice from me. To the contrary: I am grateful to have learned a lot from her. I’m very glad she is in that seat.

You, your dad and your wife have all worked in newspapers. Would you encourage your daughters to pursue journalism as a career?

Journalism is one of the best things a person can do with their life.

Former U-T owner Patrick Soon-Shiong repeatedly expressed commitment to local journalism but sold to a company with a reputation for gutting newsrooms. How were you informed of the Alden sale and what was your reaction?

I was told an hour or so before the public announcement. The deal was already closed. I had all sorts of personal feelings about the sale and about the communication, but, honestly, none of that really matters. It’s not a personal matter. It’s business.

Would you consider a leadership position at the Los Angeles Times if Soon-Shiong made an offer?

I’m fond of Patrick, and I could imagine working with him again someday, but you can’t really compare San Diego and LA. The U-T had some good results, but every company is different.

You know the business side of journalism well. How long until print is completely gone and the U-T is all digital? Should going all digital have come sooner?

I don’t know anything about the U-T’s business performance or plans, so I can’t comment on that.

To me, it seems inevitable that major markets will be Sunday-only in print within five years. My most important priority as a publisher was trying to build a sustainable digital business, not trying to rescue print. The print era is over.

You wrote an apology for the U-T’s racist coverage of the past. And you said: “Throughout our history, like our peers in Los Angeles and across the industry, the Union-Tribune served the interests of the establishment.” Does it still?

Sure. Local media are essentially establishment instruments. I don’t mean that they are not independent voices or that they do not serve an accountability role. They do. At their best, they give voice to the voiceless. But they also fundamentally reflect the institutions, stakeholders, power structures and norms of their communities. Go through any local news outlet and log what is covered and who is quoted. Establishmentarianism is baked in.

I think one of the challenges for the U-T when I was there was catching up with the change in the establishment, moving on from the old guard to new people, new norms and new ideas. The other challenge that comes along with that is keeping your intellectual independence. There’s a line at the end of the public apology that tries to get at that. You’ve got to be willing to challenge the new orthodoxy as it arises.

Do you support efforts in Sacramento to make Google and Facebook share profits with major news media after using their content (for free) for years?

I don’t think digital advertising is going to be a winning game for most local news outlets, so I don’t see this as the central issue. But it’s still significant. Every dollar matters.

It looks to me like the big platforms have exploited pretty much the entirety of American newspapers’ intellectual property.

The platforms like to say, “We are sending you traffic,” but I see that as a bogus argument. Who asked you to crib our content and send us referral traffic? Anyway, in my opinion the news sites don’t need traffic. They need subscribers.

Sadly, news companies brought a lot of this on themselves. They are still hiring social media specialists and the like, trying to get even better at giving everything away.

Are you afraid for freedom of the press if Donald Trump is elected?

I think Donald Trump has had a negative impact on most of public life, journalism included. I would expect things to get worse if he were elected again.

What are the best ideas you’ve heard for preserving or expanding local journalism? What business models should be tried?

Journalism is something that can be done well by average people with a moderate amount of training. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune. I think if you run a lean company and pay attention to your customers you can build a subscription business that works. Hold the powerful accountable. Expose injustice. Celebrate your community. Let people know what’s going on around town.

Can you find 100,000 people to pay you $2 or $3 a week for that in a place like San Diego? I think you can.

What are you most proud of in your U-T tenure?

The private notes that were shared as many of us decided to leave the U-T were very meaningful. There was such a powerful sense of commitment, accomplishment and unity. I think all of us felt like we had been part of something to be proud of.

Any regrets from your tenure?

I probably wasn’t as prepared for the job as I thought when I started, so I had to learn as I went. I made a lot of mistakes.

How do you want San Diego’s journalism and readers community to remember you?

It might sound odd coming at the end of a career, but that’s not something I really think about. As a journalist, I tried to train myself not to worry about what other people think. You can’t succumb to social pressures or play to the expectations of others. You have to harden your heart a little bit.