The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Copley Press, its publisher, is considering selling off the newspaper and has hired an investment bank to explore its options. Unfortunately, if sold, The Union-Tribune will probably not remain in the hands of a local family, like it has been for over 100 years.
It’s no secret that revenues are down across newspapers, and that has already lead to cuts in the newsroom and buyouts at the Union-Tribune, but a sale will most likely lead to even deeper cuts of senior reporters.
This could lead to a higher percentage of syndicated news over local reporting like the Pulitzer Prize winning coverage that helped uncover the worst case of bribe-taking in the history of Congress that led to the imprisonment Duke Cunningham.
It is hard to blame the Copley family for wanting to sell their flagship newspaper with Craigslist killing the classifieds business, and advertising revenues down. But despite the papers falling circulation of 300,000 subscribers on weekdays, SignOnSanDiego.com, which is owned by the Union-Tribune, has over 3 million unique visitors a month.
Unfortunately, the buyer will probably want to negotiate a big discount to avoid making the same mistakes Sam Zell and The McClatchy Company have made in recent years.
Sam Zell, who bought the Tribune Company with over 11 newspapers in 2007, was quoted in March 2008 as saying “The news business is something worse than horrible. If that’s the future, we don’t have much of a future.” That must be why Zell’s plans are to make newspapers smaller. The 400-500 cuts at the LA Times in February 2008 were apparently not enough for Zell and the Tribune Company.
In 1998, The McClatchy Company paid $1.2 billion for The Star Tribune of Minneapolis. In 2007, The McClatchy Company realized a huge loss when they sold The Star Tribune to the investment group Avista Capital Partners for $530 million.
San Diego needs the local coverage that daily newspapers are good at producing, let’s hope the San Diego Union-Tribune does not lose its way.
The San Diego Historical Society lists the first publication of the San Diego Union in 1968 and the Evening Tribune in 1895. In 1992 The San Diego Union and the Evening Tribune merged into the The San Diego Union-Tribune. John D. Spreckels purchased the San Diego Union newspaper in 1890 and the Tribune in 1901, and sold both newspapers to the Copley family in 1928.
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if the san diego UT was, in fact, producing good local coverage it’s potential sale might be something to be worried about. the reality is that the UT is waste of wood pulp whose only purpose seems to be advertorials, whether overt or covert. and that signonsandiego web site is just a joke.
while i recognize that much of the current online news content starts out in print, i’m beginning to think– after reading the UT for a few weeks– that we’d all be better off losing that crutch. the better webnews sites will finally grow and the lazy “cut & pasters” will fade away.
good riddance