Former Times Publisher Tom Johnson Shares Views About His Career and Personal Struggles
By Bob Rawitch
“Driven,” the title of former L.A. Times Publisher Tom Johnson’s autobiography released in October, is aptly named.
In a 90-minute Zoom call with the OFS group of Times retirees Jan. 8, Johnson talked openly about both his remarkable career – working eight years for President Lyndon B. Johnson, fifteen years for Times Mirror newspapers, and eleven years for cable television pioneer Ted Turner – and how his drive to succeed damaged his relationship with his children and aggravated a near life-long battle with depression.
See below for a link to a video of Tom’s talk.
“I loved my work and still do,” said the 84-year-old, who retired after three distinctly
Tom Johnson
Photo by Edwina Johnson
different but accomplished careers in public service and the news media. “Two psychiatrists told me the only way we can get you to slow down is to give you a frontal lobotomy,” he said. “There is just something in my nature.”
He continues to follow the news media and politics closely but now spends much of his time doing public education about depression and mental illness.
His bouts with depression while publisher of The Times were known to his two closest assistants, who upon his request would clear his schedule; he would then nap under his desk. He also confided in Jim Boswell, the former head of the Times human relations department, who Johnson asked to remove his guns from his San Marino home in case he became suicidal.
Not surprisingly, Johnson said his lowest point emotionally was when he was removed as publisher of The Times in 1989 by Times Mirror Board Chairman Bob Erburu, who had started as legal counsel for The Times and risen through the ranks to the top executive position.
“Tom, I am making a change,” Johnson said Erburu told him, with no further explanation as to why Johnson was being removed after about 10 years as publisher He was replaced by Dave Laventhol, then publisher of Newsday, for whom Johnson said he had the utmost admiration.
But Johnson said he knew there was more to his removal that Erburu was not sharing with him in that brief conversation. He explained to the OFS attendees that Erburu, Chandler family member Dan Frost, and others had asked Southern California Edison Board Chair Howard Allen to take Johnson to lunch to deliver a message.
Johnson recalled that Allen told him, “Tom, if you don’t start running The Times the way Dan Frost, Bob Erburu and others on the board want you to, you will be out.”
His response, Johnson said, was, “Howard, please convey back to those who asked you to take me to lunch that I will continue to run The Times the way Otis and I think it should be run.”
The former publisher knew that then-Cardinal Roger Mahoney (later named archbishop) had written a letter complaining to board members that the Times editorial pages and Editorial Page Editor Tony Day were too liberal.
Erburu, a devout Catholic, had been elevated by Mahoney to the highest civilian rank within the Catholic Church, and the Times editorial pages had been critical of the decision by church hierarchy to build the costly Los Angeles Cathedral, rather than using the money to support poorer parishes.
Only five years earlier, Johnson recalled, Erburu had told him, “You need to be preparing yourself for my job.”
Johnson was proud of his accomplishments, first as president and then as publisher of The Times, the first non-Chandler family member to hold the position. During his tenure, the paper added San Diego and San Fernando Valley regional daily editions, the Orange County Plant was expanded, and the paper created a Washington, D.C., street edition. The year he was removed as publisher, the Times posted record revenues, profits and circulation.
Asked what he would do today as publisher to turn around the struggling L.A. Times, he said he could not work for Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, whom he had initially thought would be a “white knight” who would save the paper.
Johnson said the paper’s new owner started off well, investing necessary financial and human resources, and seemingly the determination and right values to lead the paper to success. But Soon-Shiong’s values later changed, Johnson believes, and “the way he has politicized The Times is terrible.”
While Johnson did not mention it, many of Soon-Shiong’s medical and pharmaceutical interests require federal approvals from President Donald Trump and his administration that are no doubt worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Many staffers and observers suspect these valuable and highly profitable interests are among the reasons he killed the paper’s planned endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
His removal as publisher was followed by a brief stint in a Times Mirror corporate position overseeing the Denver and Dallas papers. Johnson was then recruited by television cable pioneer Ted Turner to become president of the fledgling CNN.
Shortly thereafter, Iraq invaded Kuwait and the U.S. went to war with Iraq. At the time, he said, CNN was the only media outlet capable of and prepared for delivering full video coverage of the conflict. Johnson said Turner gave him all the resources necessary to deliver the television coverage that established CNN as a key news source for viewers worldwide.
Johnson said until he met Turner, he used to think that former President Johnson was “the most complex person he had ever met,” but that Turner was even more so. But he enjoyed working for Turner, and he left CNN in 2001 when Time Warner, which then owned CNN, merged with AOL.
Johnson said he has been a diligent note-taker for most of his life, and this habit was in part why LBJ assigned him to observe and record high-level meetings in the White House. Because of the sensitive nature of many of these meetings his notes were classified. Johnson’s efforts to have his White House notes declassified for his own use began almost 30 years ago. In the end, he was denied permission to use some of them, while others were heavily redacted.
He credited several former Times colleagues for factchecking his book, including George Cotliar, managing editor from 1978 to 1996, and Dick Schlosberg, who served as president of the paper from 1988 to 1997. Schlosberg died in January of 2024.
Johnson closed his remarks with praise for his wife Edwina to whom he has been married for nearly 62 years. He said she stood by him through his toughest times, and ultimately overcame his reluctance to seek psychiatric help for his depression while at The Times because she threatened to leave him if he did not.
To see a video of Tom’s talk with OFS attendees on Jan. 8, click here.
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