Lanai’s Newspaper Is Now Owned By The Company That Owns Lanai … The sale of Lanai Today to billionaire Larry Ellison is raising concerns about journalistic integrity. But it may have saved Lanai from becoming a news desert.
In 2019, Lanai’s only newspaper sold to Pulama Lanai, the management company that oversees billionaire tech mogul Larry Ellison’s ownership stake in this island of 3,000 deeply rooted residents.
Ellison owns 98% of Lanai, including a third of the housing, the water utility and the twin luxury resorts that employ the majority of working residents.
Now he also owns Lanai Today, the paper of record on this tiny island with no traffic lights and only 30 miles of paved road.
The ownership change is raising questions about the independence of the lone newspaper that covers the Lanai community, where much of life is already dominated by Ellison’s influence.
