Owners of the flagging San Diego Union-Tribune, one of the largest daily newspapers in California, said Wednesday that the publication would be sold to a private equity firm for an undisclosed sum.
Platinum Equity of Beverly Hills would be the Union-Tribune's first owner since the paper was acquired in 1928 by Copley Press Inc., a family-owned chain based in La Jolla.
The sale would mark the end of the Copley family's eight-decade involvement in the newspaper business and comes at a time when buyers are scarce in an industry battered by falling circulation, revenue and profits.
Platinum specializes in buying businesses in declining markets and has completed nearly 100 acquisitions in numerous industries since being founded in 1995. The Union-Tribune would be the firm's first newspaper holding.
"This is a market that is undergoing substantial upheaval and transition, and we intend to try to help the paper redefine, reinvent and reorient itself," said Mark Barnhill, a principal at Platinum. "That doesn't just mean scaling downward -- we try to grow our businesses. If other folks are running out of a burning building, we're running into it."
The sale is expected to be completed during the second quarter.
Copley put the newspaper on the block in July, when it hired advisors from New York to explore "strategic alternatives." Print publications nationwide have been pounded by a decline in advertising, a trend that has worsened with the recession. The Union-Tribune's ad revenue has tumbled 40% since 2006, publisher Gene Bell told the staff in January. That has spurred cost-cutting moves including employee buyouts, layoffs and unpaid furloughs as well as benefit reductions.
A few companies had expressed interest in the Union-Tribune, including Los Angeles Times owner Tribune Co., which filed for bankruptcy protection late last year; MediaNews Group Inc., parent of the San Jose Mercury News; and Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle's Yucaipa Cos. But none of them could reach a deal.
Platinum could be buying the Union-Tribune in hopes of later picking up the beleaguered Orange County Register and the struggling Los Angeles Times to create a Southern California media empire, said industry analyst John Morton.
But a more likely scenario, he said, is that Platinum pounced on the paper because it was cheap, hoping to sell it at a profit when the economy recovers.
