Meet the new boss

The new owners of the San Diego Union-Tribune met privately with employees and laid out their plans for the future - and dissed the old owner for letting the paper get fat. At least a few employees seem to be relieved.

From the Voice of San Diego:

"I went into the meeting not super receptive, given that this is the management team that had laid off more than 100 people the day before," said one newsroom staffer. "I came out feeling better about the future of the paper than I have in two years."

Two other newsroom workers agreed with that assessment, and all three said they were hopeful and impressed by the new management's willingness to criticize the old regime. (The staff members requested anonymity for fear of antagonizing the new bosses.)

Employees were told the mass layoffs are over, but changes in production will probably mean more people will lose jobs in the near future.

'Fire-sale price'

The Wall Street Journal story on the sale of the San Diego Union-Tribune to Platinum Equity has a little more information about the price:

The deal price wasn't disclosed, but a person familiar with the matter said it was less than $50 million, a price largely driven by the Copley Press real estate, which includes the complex housing the Union-Tribune and another facility. The value of the assets -- even amid a downtrodden real-estate market -- gives the buyers some cushion against the struggling newspaper, according to people familiar with the matter.

The fire-sale price reflects the dried-up market for big newspapers. A number of papers have been put up for sale in the last year, but bankers say suitors are staying on the sidelines while it is hard to predict when advertising declines will hit bottom. E.W. Scripps Co. recently closed the Rocky Mountain News and Hearst Corp. this week ended the print edition of its Seattle Post-Intelligencer after the papers attracted no serious offers.

No deal yet for Union-Tribune, layoffs likely

As Mark Lacter at LA Biz Observed observes, Copley's failure to sell the San Diego Union-Tribune and poor ad sales have already put employees in a bind. The Pulitzer-prize winning paper has suspended merit raises, cut health benefits and ended 401k matches. Now Copley CEO Gene Bell warns of another round of layoffs:

We must make even more dramatic changes in our cost structure that, unfortunately, must soon include a reduction in force. We are working through the details of staff reductions thoughtfully with a focus on protecting the quality of the products our readers and advertising customers expect.

It's a buyers market out there for anyone looking to snap up a struggling newspaper. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anyone out there looking to buy a struggling newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have all been put up for sale in recent weeks. The two advantages the U-T has over the others is that San Diego is a one-newspaper town and the owner hasn't been crippled by bad debt.

U-T will probably be sold*

Copley Press Inc. was once a journalistic force in Southern California. The company began folding up shop in late 2006 with the sale of the Daily Breeze. A year later, Copley shuttered its bureau in Los Angeles and consolidated operations at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Now, Copley is taking steps to sell off its last major brand:

The announcement by privately owned The Copley Press Inc. follows the sale of several key assets, including its Copley News Service newswire arm and small papers in Illinois and Ohio, over the past 18 months.

The parent company of the San Diego Union-Tribune said Thursday it has retained an investment-banking firm to explore a potential sale.

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Earlier this year, the Union-Tribune cut 10 percent of its work force. The cuts included 76 buyouts, including newsroom positions, layoffs of 27 employees and the elimination of 14 pressroom jobs.

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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.

*The Union-Tribune on the possible sale of the Union-Tribune.