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11/09/2006 19:08:00

DAVID GEFFEN spends more time schmoozing with an elite cadre of journalists than just about any other mogul in Hollywood. The billionaire who founded Asylum records (Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt) in 1971 and co-founder of DreamWorks, often invites them to his sprawling estate in Beverly Hills, where De Koonings and Pollocks hang on the walls. In September, his guest was Leo Wolinsky, a managing editor of The Los Angeles Times, and they broached the delicate question of whether Mr Geffen might try to buy the struggling newspaper. If Mr Geffen gets his way, he will be spending a lot more time with journalists. Lately his name has been prominently linked with a potential purchase of The LA Times, fuelled in part by his recent sale of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of paintings from his world-class collection. In addition, his wooing of Mr Wolinsky, with whom he has a continuing dialogue, has made him a favourite potential owner among many top editors. But if he wants the nation's fourth-largest newspaper, he will have to fight for it. Two rival billionaires, Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, joined forces on Wednesday to make a bid for all of the Tribune Company, to get their hands on The LA Times. Details of the bid were not released but, like Mr Geffen, they have said they want the paper not just for financial gain but to protect an imperilled civic institution. On Tuesday, the Tribune Company, with a market value of $US7.7 billion ($10 billion), dismissed The Times's top editor, Dean Baquet, who had declined to make further newsroom cuts. Mr Geffen declined to comment. But the man with a record of stellar success in pop music, theatre and contemporary art, along with a reputation for blind ambition, ferocious drive and ruthless single-mindedness, as observed in a detailed biography of him by Tom King published in 2000, has told friends and colleagues that buying The Los Angeles Times is his next major goal. Mr Geffen, a Democratic activist, has indicated he would be willing to accept lower profits at the newspaper so he could invest in making it world class. Because of Mr Geffen's singular clout, his enormous influence in Hollywood, his multi-billion-dollar fortune, his political activism, many of those who know him well wonder what kind of owner he would be. While he co-operated initially with Mr King, the late Wall Street Journal reporter who wrote The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys and Sells the New Hollywood, Mr Geffen stopped speaking to the reporter. He bombarded the publisher, Random House, with phone calls and a visit from his lawyer, Bert Fields, to complain about the books accuracy.