Former L.A. Times publisher Chandler dies

LOS ANGELES — Otis Chandler, the former publisher of the Los Angeles Times who transformed his family’s provincial, conservative newspaper into a respected national media voice, died early Monday. He was 78.

Chandler had been suffering from a degenerative brain disorder known as Lewy body disease, said Tom Johnson, who succeeded Chandler as publisher.

Chandler’s wife, Bettina, was with him when he died at his home in Ojai, said Johnson, the retired chairman and chief executive of CNN News Group.

Chandler was the scion of a family that wielded financial and political power in the Los Angeles area for decades.

As publisher, he spent most of his career chafing against what he sensed was an East Coast bias against Los Angeles and fought to elevate the Times to a par with Eastern rivals.

“No publisher in America improved a paper so quickly on so grand a scale, took a paper that was marginal in qualities and brought it to excellence as Otis Chandler did,” David Halberstam wrote in his 1979 book “The Powers that Be.”

“He was a strong leader and dedicated his paper to excellence as well as financial success, and there weren’t many of those,” Ben Bradlee, vice president at large of The Washington Post, said in a telephone interview.

With his blond hair, weightlifter physique and love of surfing and hot cars, Chandler was a quintessential Californian of his generation.

He was an avid hunter as well as a collector of antique cars and motorcycles. He bagged an elephant in Mozambique, antelope in Chad, a leopard in Kenya and the four rarest species of bighorn sheep in North America. Many of his trophies were displayed at his home and at his Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife in Oxnard.

Chandler resigned as the paper’s publisher in 1980 following 20 years at the helm.

Otis Chandler was born in 1927, the son of Times publisher Norman Chandler and great-grandson of Times founder Harrison Gray Otis.

His mother was Dorothy Chandler, the philanthropist and arts patron who led a campaign in the 1950s to save the financially troubled Hollywood Bowl and a drive to build a permanent home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic — the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Chandler was groomed from an early age to take control of the family’s newspaper. He worked as a printer’s apprentice, reporter and in the advertising and circulation departments.

He succeeded his father as publisher in 1960 at age 33.

The paper then was considered parochial and partisan, a mouthpiece for conservative political causes.

Almost immediately, Chandler initiated changes designed to make the paper one of the country’s best. He moved it toward the political center and angered conservative allies — and family members — by publishing a series of stories on the right-wing John Birch Society.

He hired more reporters, raised salaries, opened overseas bureaus and beefed up the paper’s coverage of Washington.

Chandler also expanded the reach of Times Mirror, starting a news service with The Washington Post and acquiring newspapers, television stations and other media outlets.

Chandler’s efforts resulted in the Times winning seven Pulitzer prizes during his tenure.

In addition to his wife, survivors include sons Harry and Michael and daughters Carolyn Chandler and Cathleen Chandler.

A memorial service is scheduled for March 6 at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena.