REGION: Owner of San Diego Union-Tribune to explore sale
By Staff and Wire reports | ∞
LA JOLLA ---- The parent company of the San Diego Union-Tribune said Thursday it has hired an investment banker to explore a potential sale of the company.
The announcement by privately owned Copley Press Inc. follows the sale of several other company assets over the past 18 months, including Copley News Service and small newspapers in Illinois and Ohio.
Copley Executive Vice President Harold Fuson said the company has been hit especially hard by the real-estate downturn, which has depressed advertising sales.
Earlier this year, the Union-Tribune cut 10 percent of its work force. The cuts included 76 buy-outs, including newsroom positions, layoffs of 27 employees and the elimination of 14 pressroom jobs.
New York-based Evercore Partners, an investment banker that represented Copley in its previous sales, will handle any potential deal.
Analysts said Copley's decision to explore a sale reflects the turmoil in the news industry. "I believe there are opportunities in local newspapers but they have to begin reinventing themselves on the Internet," said Jonathan Taplin, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California. "That's not something Copley apparently wants to spend money on."
The San Diego Union-Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for its reporting on the bribery scandal that landed former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in federal prison. It is the 21st largest daily paper in the United States, with a weekday circulation of 288,669 and about 1,000 employees.
Copley also publishes Enlace, the largest Spanish-language weekly in San Diego County, and Today's Local News, a 66,000-copy paper distributed in northern San Diego County.
In North San Diego County, the Union-Tribune competes with the North County Times, a unit of Lee Enterprises Inc. The Davenport, Iowa-based company publishes 54 newspapers in 23 states. The company declined to speculate on who might be interested in buying the Union-Tribune.
"I'm not sure anyone is in a buying mode now," said Peter York, publisher of the North County Times. York said the Union-Tribune has been a "good competitor."
On Thursday, Lee and two other national publishers ---- McClatchy Co. and E.W. Scripps Co. ---- said their profits had fallen by nearly half in the second quarter compared to last year. They joined industry heavyweights New York Times Co. and Gannet Co., which reported earnings Wednesday and last week, in saying double-digit drops in ad revenue were most to blame for plunging profits, though rising costs played a role too.
All five publishers said ad revenue fell fastest in June, and most said July is looking as bad or worse.
"It really shows we haven't yet reached a bottom for revenue declines," said Mike Simonton, a media analyst with Fitch Ratings.
At Lee Enterprises, profit tumbled 87 percent to $2.8 million, or 6 cents per share, in its fiscal third quarter. Excluding one-time charges, partly to write down the declining implied value of its newspaper brands, Lee earned $12.6 million, or 28 cents per share, down 44 percent from the third quarter of 2007. Revenue fell 8 percent to $256.4 million.
Staff writer Jeff Rowe and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Dude wrote on Jul 24, 2008 3:29 PM:Print is dead
OCEANSIDER wrote on Jul 24, 2008 3:49 PM:This is bad news. I have noticed how the Union Trib has shrunk over the past few years, a sure sign of its troubles. There was a time when it was a really big paper, rivaling even the Los Angeles Times. Now the Trib is usually smaller than the NCT. I have read that eventually newspapers will be a thing of the past, supplanted by the inter net and TV news. There is something about the printed word that can never be equalled by other media. The printed word and literacy go hand in hand. Let's hope that we don't become a society of illiterates who depend only on the spoken word and pictures.
Wondering wrote on Jul 24, 2008 5:12 PM:I was wondering what all those signs meant that read SOMETHING STINKS AT THE SD UNION-TRIBUNE. I don't even buy a paper anymore. I read it on the net.
Patrick wrote on Jul 24, 2008 6:52 PM:Stop your newspaper and save our environment!
Bobo wrote on Jul 24, 2008 10:15 PM:U.T. has been pushing an extreme left wing agenda (along with other major newspapers)for too long... no wonder no one wants to read or advertise with that kind of agenda driven reporting! N.C.T. is next! I'll keep listing to Michael Savage or looking at the Canada Free Press...Thank You
Dub Meister wrote on Jul 25, 2008 7:00 AM:Good reporting happens for many reasons.Strong support from publishers,
skilled news gathering skills and competition. Who knows what new owners will bring? The unknown is scary.
DoDo wrote on Jul 25, 2008 10:30 AM:If you don't like the message, shoot the messenger!
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