Union-Tribune sold

Platinum Equity has turned around and sold the San Diego Union-Tribune two years after buying the newspaper. The new owner will be a real estate company MLIM, owned by Doug Manchester, reports The Wrap. Now, real estate entrepreneurs and newspapers don't always mix well (see here), but Manchester does have the advantage of being local.

Voice of San Diego had this to say in a story presaging the sale:

If Manchester bought the newspaper outright, he'd get a key piece of property that local real estate analysts have said was a valuable part of the Union-Tribune's 2009 sale to Platinum: The company's main building, which sits on 13 acres in Mission Valley, just south of the Fashion Valley mall.

Four Wednesday

1. Platinum Equity is exploring a possible sale, er divestiture, of the San Diego Union-Tribune. UT

2. The Associated Press releases new social media guidelines. AP (via Romenesko)

3. Simon Dumenco says punishment of Huffington Post writer for "over-aggregating" copy obscures the fact that over-aggregation of copy is a central Huffington Post strategy. Ad Age

4. Feeling claustrophobic about this weekend's Carmageddon carpocalypse? JetBlue had a solution - for $4, the Car-mageddon fly-over would have taken you from Long Beach to Burbank, or vice versa, allowing you to avoid all ground congestion. The trip would have taken 45 minutes, not counting security checks, but the flights are sold out anyway. JetBlue

Layoffs at the Union-Tribune

The San Diego Union-Tribune laid off five news staffers yesterday. The San Diego Reader has the story.

Politicians behaving badly, part one

The North County Times pulled its endorsement for Vista City Council candidate Mario Carrillo after a San Diego Union-Tribune reporter found he'd inflated his educational experience. Carrillo had touted in his campaign materials and at council meetings that he had a bachelor's and master's degree. Turns out, the degrees came from a well-known diploma mill.

From the U-T story:

Shaftesbury University is part of a consortium of unaccredited universities called the University Degree Programs run by Jason and Caroline Abraham starting in the 1990s. According to the 2004 Chronicle of Higher Education article, sales people at call centers in Romania and Israel recruited students over the telephone. In the past, recipients of their degrees have been prosecuted for fraud in connection with the use of the degrees for employment.

Carrillo might have fibbed about his music accomplishments, too, and could lose other endorsements over the affair, the U-T reports.

Echoes of Christine O'Donnell, eh?

Newspaper circulation drops slightly less sharply

Circulation numbers are out of the last six months and most big newspapers saw a decline when compared to last year. The drop isn't as bad as in past years, but that's not saying much. For some papers, such as the San Francisco Chronicle, this decline has been relentless. Here are the numbers for the 25 largest papers, as reported in the New York Times, with this year's first, followed by last year's, and the percentage change:

WALL STREET JOURNAL   2,061,142 … 2,024,269 … 1.82%
USA TODAY   1,830,594 … 1,900,116 … -3.66%
NEW YORK TIMES   876,638 … 927,851 … -5.52%
LOS ANGELES TIMES   600,449 … 657,467 … -8.67%
WASHINGTON POST   545,345 … 582,844 … -6.43%
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS   512,520 … 544,167 … -5.82%
NEW YORK POST   501,501 … 508,042 … -1.29%
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS   477,592 N/A
CHICAGO TRIBUNE   441,508 … 465,892 … -5.23%
HOUSTON CHRONICLE   343,952 … 384,437 … -10.53%
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER   342,361 … 361,481 … -5.29%
NEWSDAY    314,848 … 357,124 … -11.84%
DENVER POST   309,863 … 340,949 … -9.12%
ARIZONA REPUBLIC   308,973 … 316,873 … -2.49%
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE   297,478 … 304,544 … -2.32%
DALLAS MORNING NEWS   264,459 … 263,810 … 0.25%
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER   252,608 … 271,182 … -6.85%
SEATTLE TIMES   251,697 … 263,588 -4.51%
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES   250,747 … 275,641 … -9.03%
DETROIT FREE PRESS   245,326 … 269,729 … -9.05%
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES   239,684 … 240,146 … -0.19%
OREGONIAN   239,071 … 249,164 … -4.05%
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE   224,761 … 242,693 … -7.39%
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE   223,549 … 251,782 … -11.21%
NEWARK STAR-LEDGER   223,037 … 246,006 … -9.34%

Another politician might live outside his district

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has alleged that L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcon and state Sen. Roderick Wright live outside their respective districts, and lied about it, and now the Union-Tribune reports that the DA in San Diego County is looking into an allegation that Vista City Councilman Bob Campbell lives outside the city he represents, in nearby San Marcos.

Comings and goings

Former Press-Enterprise reporter Aaron Burgin has taken a staff writing position at the San Diego Union-Tribune, where he covers the communities of Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista.

*Here's one of his first stories, a nice profile of a local councilman with an apparent gambling problem.

NPR's Project Argo getting underway

National Public Radio's $3 million Project Argo will officially launch September 1. The idea behind the project is for national headquarters to invest in local news reporting that benefits both local affiliates and the national news shows. The money comes from Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and is being used to create a network of local blogs (twelve so far).

One of the new blogs funded through Project Argo is at KPCC (or Southern California Public Radio, as the Pasadena-based station prefers to be called). The blog is titled Multi-American and is written by former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Leslie Berestein Rojas. Here's how she and the blog are described:

Leslie most recently covered immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She has retraced the steps of migrants along desert smuggling trails, investigated immigrant detention contractors, and told the stories of families left behind in Mexico’s migrant-sending towns. A native of Cuba raised in Los Angeles, Leslie has also written for Time, People, the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times. She has reported from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Multi-American is both a news project and a discussion forum. It’s also part of a partnership between Southern California Public Radio and NPR involving a dozen public radio stations around the country, among them 89.3 KPCC, in which we’re experimenting with filling the gaps left in news coverage by a shrinking media industry. KPCC’s Jason Kandel is managing and editing the project.

Nieman Journalism Lab has a list of the other blogs around the country. There are two in San Francisco for some reason.

A new look in San Diego

The redesigned San Diego Union-Tribune launched last week (h/t fishbowlLA). Apparently old people don't like it - but will continue subscribing as long as they don't fuss with the comic strips.

Newsroom cuts in San Diego

The creation of the "Jr. Staff Writer" at the San Diego Union-Tribune isn't as funny as it first appeared. Apparently the lower paying position coincides with yet another round of newsroom layoffs. Between 34 and 40 reporters, web editors and copy editors could lose their jobs, according to NBC San Diego.

Journalism lite

The San Diego Union-Tribune has a job listing for something it calls a "Jr. Staff Writer," which one person described to me as "reporter lite."

Here's the description of duties:

Under supervision, will research and write news and straight forward short stories with low level of complexity, analysis and narrative, in accordance with identified style and structure; compile lists, contribute regularly to blogs during the course of the work day; work with reporters as directed to enhance larger trend stories; may “fill in” in other areas as assigned when reporters are away from their beats; may use social media to enhance readership and find sources, and assist with daily cops calls.

Salary is negotiable.

Four today

1. California Watch, run by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, has hired three new reporters: former Los Angeles Daily Journal and LA Times reporter Joanna Lin; Pulitzer Prize-winner Ryan Gabrielson, and reporter Susanne Rust. LA Observed

2. The San Diego Union-Tribune appears to be contemplating more newsroom cuts. fishbowlLA

3. Blogger Danny Sullivan accuses the "mainstream media" of doing what he claims the mainstream media accuses bloggers of doing: taking a scoop without giving due credit. Daggle

4. The San Diego News Network, bolstered by big donations and rosy talk, has followed its cousin, the Orange County News Network, into oblivion. All writers and freelancers were fired as of June 1. San Diego Reader

A less perfect Union-Tribune

In the anything for a buck age, the San Diego Union-Tribune turned back time - and dropped the "Union" from its name - as part of a promotional wraparound advertisement for Wells Fargo Bank. Clever.

Turns out, they turned the clock back a little too far. From San Diego Citybeat:

The ad is made to looks like an old-timey edition from April 30, 1852, suggesting what the newspaper might’ve looked like before the San Diego Tribune merged with the San Diego Union. ...

How’s this for an anachronism: The San Diego Tribune wasn’t founded until 1895.

Is accuracy an anachronism, too?

Four in the evening

1. Gannett will force employees to take a week furlough and will extend a wage freeze through April, at least. Gannett Blog

2. Poynter talks to Howard Saltz, MediaNews Group's vice president for content, about what to expect from the coming paywall. Poynter

3. The San Diego Union-Tribune hires a new editor: Jeff Light, formerly vice president of interactive for the Orange County Register. U-T

4. Ana Marie Cox, the original Wonkette, becomes Washington correspondent for GQ magazine. Politico

Union-Tribune editor to step down

Karin Winner, the respected editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, told staff today that she plans to step down at the end of the year after 15 years on the job.

Winner leaves after a year of turmoil at the newspaper, which lost a substantial portion of its newsroom after being sold to a private equity firm from Beverly Hills.

The paper's publisher, Ed Moss, formerly the head of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, said the paper will begin an immediate search for Winner's replacement.

From the U-T:

Winner began her career in 1976 as a reporter at The San Diego Union, rising through the management ranks and assuming the role of executive editor of the newly merged San Diego Union-Tribune in 1992 (the merger of The San Diego Union and Evening Tribune). Three years later, she took on the lead role of editor of the county’s largest daily newspaper.

The paper won two Pulitzer Prizes during Winner's reign, in 2006 and in 2009.

Union-Tribune gets facelift

The San Diego Union-Tribune today unveiled its newly redesigned website. The front page is more colorful and relies on large photos and minimal text to draw readers to the day's top stories. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to the link to the paper's story about the redesign to work.

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.

Union dues?

Shortly after Platinum Equity bought the San Diego Union-Tribune in March, the union representing police officers in Los Angeles wrote a letter to the news owners demanding they make the paper's editorial pages more union friendly, even if it meant firing the editorial page writers.

Here's a part of what Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, wrote to Platinum CEO Tom Gores:

"Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced."

On Wednesday, the new owners took a step in that direction by laying off the editorial and opinion page editors, along with more than 100 other workers. I know of nothing that suggests this is anything more than coincidence, but I agree with Ben at Infinite Monkeys that it deserves closer scrutiny.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, Platinum Equity "relies on a $30-million investment from the pension fund of Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters, along with large sums from other public-employee pension systems around the state, to help fund its acquisitions of companies."

Union-Tribune cuts 112

An updated story in the San Diego Union-Tribune puts the number of workers laid off yesterday at 112 - that's fewer than the 200 estimated by PaidContent, but still quite a crowd. The paper's new owners, Platinum Equity, had already cut 192 workers in May.

The U-T story is mucked up with a lot of noise about advertising and micro-zoning initiatives, and doesn't include a breakdown for how many people were cut from the newsroom. The paper's online rival, Voice of San Diego, has reported some of those names.

Layoffs at the Union-Tribune*,**,***

The Boston Globe signaled last week that layoffs were coming to the San Diego Union-Tribune and now the Voice of San Diego has confirmed the cuts are underway:

Bob Kittle, the editorial page editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune, has been laid off, according to newsroom sources. So has Bernie Jones, the editor of the newspaper's opinion page. ...

The newspaper is in the midst of laying off staffers throughout the business. We're working to confirm the size and scope of the layoffs[.]

The Globe mentioned the pending layoffs in a profile of the paper's new owner, Platinum Equity of Beverly Hill. The company, which bought the Union-Tribune in May and promptly laid off 192 employees, has put in a bid to buy the Globe from the New York Times Co.

*Update: PaidContent reports 200 people have been laid off at the Union-Tribune, which would cut the total workforce to 650.

Here's a part of the U-T's story announcing the layoffs and other changes at the paper:

The San Diego Union-Tribune said Wednesday that it is eliminating an undisclosed number of jobs as part of a package of initiatives that also includes new editorial and advertising offerings.

The company announced an advertising program that will allow micro-zoning for small businesses at lower, localized rates, as well as an editorial effort that will produce more local coverage of targeted communities.

It also announced a planned redesign of the company's SignOnSanDiego.com Web site, as well as an investment in a pagination publishing system it said would significantly streamline the newspaper's production process.

The company also said it would partially reverse pay cuts for remaining employees that were implemented in February.

“These initiatives, taken as a whole, strike a balance between our short-term economic reality and our long-term aspirations for growth and reinvention of our product,” Union-Tribune Publisher Ed Moss said.

(h/t LA Biz Observed)

**Update II: According to the communications director for San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, the U-T has fired military reporter Rick Rogers, cops reporter Mark Arner, photographer Laura Embry and North County editor Jim Okerblom.

(h/t Romenesko)

***Updated: The Union-Tribune has reported that the number of laid off is 112, not the 200 PaidContent reported.