Privileged Son: Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty

Behind many of America's greatest newspapers have been family dynasties that ruled the business for multiple generations. Perhaps no family was as colorful and dynamic as the Chandlers, owners until March 2000 of the Los Angeles Times. The growth and development of the newspaper, established in 1881, is directly intertwined with the politics and culture of the city itself and indeed of all Southern California. Dennis McDougal, a former investigative reporter for the L.A. Times, offers a fascinating history of both the paper and the four generations of Chandlers who controlled it. As publisher, Otis Chandler—car racer, surfer, former Olympic shot putter—was credited with turning it into one of America's most respected newspapers and expanding the family business into one of the earliest media empires, before its eventual sale to the Tribune Company of Chicago.