By Doug Porter
Early Thursday afternoon media reporter Ken Doctor at Newsonomics broke the news, saying Papa Doug Manchester was about to sell San Diego’s daily newspaper to the corporate owners of the Los Angeles Times.
Southern California, poking northward into Santa Barbara and stretching southward to the Mexican border, will soon become Tribune Territory.
In a deal intended to be soon announced, Tribune Publishing will buy UT San Diego (the former San Diego Union Tribune) for about $80 million — and the assumption of growing pension obligations, recently upped to more than $100 million, I’ve learned through several confidential sources.
A couple of hours later UT-San Diego made it official:
Austin Beutner, the Times publisher and chief executive, will hold those posts at both companies after the deal closes in coming weeks. Employing about 500 journalists in the Times newsroom and 175 at the U-T, the combined companies would offer subject-matter expertise that no competitor can match, he said.
“That’s our comparative advantage; … we have more voices and more content, and that’s how we win in a digital world,” Beutner said in an interview before the announcement.
“We compete by having the best content.”
To that end, Beutner said a regional operating parent, called California News Group, would keep the Times and U-T as distinct brands and separate newsrooms. Yet he said they would share some stories, photos, video and other content, when doing so can best serve readers.
Most people won’t notice any changes, aside from improved coverage, Beutner said.
One change would be hard to miss, however: Executives will consider returning to the name The San Diego Union-Tribune, the brand since 1992 (when The San Diego Union and The Tribune merged) that was compressed to San Diego U-T in 2010 by former owner Platinum Equity, and to U-T San Diego by current owner “Papa” Doug Manchester.
The UT coverage included a “letter to readers” from Beunter:
Dear Readers,
I am pleased to announce that Tribune Publishing Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, has agreed to acquire The San Diego Union-Tribune. At the close of the transaction, I will serve as publisher of the Union-Tribune, which will join the Los Angeles Times as the flagship publications of a newly formed California News Group.
For San Diego and for all of California this is an important day, a recommitment to the values of independent journalism. The Union-Tribune, which traces its history back 146 years, will continue its role in the San Diego community, reaching an audience of more than a million readers every week.
California is a state defined by its geography and its people. Mountain ranges and coastlines, waterways and fault lines have shaped its cities and created urban identities as unique as its personalities and landmarks.
San Diego, the birthplace of California, is a city of both “pleasure and innovation,” to borrow a line from its great local scribe, the late Neil Morgan.
We take pride in the accomplishments of baseball greats like Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn, literary lions like Theodor Geisel and L. Frank Baum, philanthropists like Joan Kroc and the Copley family and visionaries like Jonas Salk and Roger Revelle.
And we look to the next generation of talent emerging from San Diego’s universities, biotech and communication industries, from the Old Globe and Comic-Con, from the border and military bases — at all points where this rich metropolis engages with both the nation and the world.
With four Pulitzer Prizes among the Union-Tribune’s honors, we are mindful of its role in the community, and we will preserve the independence of the Union-Tribune’s newsroom and its award-winning writers, photographers and editors.
I am aware of the fierce devotion that readers of the Union-Tribune bring to their hometown newspaper, and the Union-Tribune will continue to be a destination for trusted journalism delivering essential news, analysis and commentary that engages all viewpoints. I also know that Los Angeles will benefit from a closer connection to its southern neighbor.
When Neil Morgan visited Jonas Salk’s laboratory in La Jolla more than 50 years ago, he asked the scientist why he had left New York. Salk looked to the sea and answered, “I see San Diego as an empty canvas on which to paint my dreams.” Many of those dreams have come true; many have yet to be realized.
The San Diego Union-Tribune will be there, continuing to engage and inform you.
Look for more coverage and some analysis late Friday morning in The Starting Line column.
Doug Porter
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The money quote in Doctor’s article: “In the end, we come back to a truism about Doug Manchester’s three-and-a-half year ownership of the U-T. Ink doesn’t flow through Manchester’s veins; real estate does,…”
In a word: WOW!!
Best news I’ve heard all week!
And it seems “Papa” is loosing money, too. He paid @115 million.
*snif*
He keeps the real estate holdings, which are worth an estimated $43.6 million, and was probably his main motivation in buying the paper in the first place.
Yes, I didn’t know this when I posted the comment. So, the money probably equals out.
At least we’ll have a real newspaper publishing company again.
Thx, Butch.
Great news. Have the liberal values of the LA Times been maintained in recent years after all the buying and selling, and will the newly constituted San Diego Union Tribune go from conservative to liberal in its orientation?
Great news! Papa Manchester and is gross distortion of the news will not be missed.
The good news for me is that, hopefully, one day soon, I won’t have to see that ridiculous appellation “Papa.” I will never understand why everyone, including all of the media, has bowed to his wish to be called “Papa.” What other public figure does the media refer to by a nickname?
We all should recognize this is a purchase by a single ownership of an area from Santa Barbara through to San Diego that includes huge pockets of resident and vacation money. Okay, let the euphoria roll for now, but we could all be dancing to tunes we’ve never heard before, and can’t sing.
Forgive me, Bob, I’m not sure your point is clear, can you elaborate a little more? Thanks.
Glad to. SoCal is not one place, and no single media voice can be expected to do justice to regional interests. It would be good if the next version of the Union-Tribune proves to be in effect a zoned edition of the La Times, with relatively full coverage of San Diego’s politics and breaking news and without the overbearing and exclusively Republican editorial policy.
Even so, San Diego’s development from now on may be averaged against the needs of LA and Orange County, and the voices we hear advising us in print and online could well be coming from a long way off.
Ok, thanks for the clarification, Bob, I would say your concern is very legitimate.
Ding Dong, Papa is gone. Sure will be nice to have a local newspaper that isn’t just a real estate/right-wing news rag. I may have to subscribe again, though it will depend on the editorial page.
This could be a bit threatening to the SDFP. Some competition perhaps?
The only impact the sale will have on SDFP is that it gives us a great excuse to eat some tacos and drink some beer together while we celebrate. See today’s story for more impacts: http://sandiegofreepress.org/2015/05/ut-san-diego-sale-inquiring-minds-want-to-know/
The new Publisher is on record as stating a hands off policy in regard to the editorial pages…I don’t buy it and from the reaction of former Mayor Sanders and so-called “Chamber Chieftain,” I’m right…besides…the Publisher is a former President Clinton devotee and mover and shaker…San Diego conservatives…..you better turn to the Orange County Register!! lol It’s a new day!!!!!!!!! It’s called America’s new demographic alignment…
I just hope that the new publisher, if they are as you have indicated, produces a fair and balanced newspaper. That would serve two purposes. First, we would have a decent print paper to read. Second, it would be the best way to pay back the conservatives who have controlled the paper for so long how by telling, oh my god, BOTH sides of a story.