San Diego U-T sold to equity group

Black... gawd, he just sends a chill..

 

Mole inside the U-T: David Black will run the show. His Canadian papers (and Hawaii Star-Bulletin and Washington state tabs) appear to be doing OK.

I have to imagine there will be some job losses to make this equity purchase work. And the product needs a lot of capital improvements, both to the paper and the Web site.

 

Black folded the Journal. The previous owner, in his all-out quest to mismanage a once-proud paper, was the one who combined Eastside Journal and South County Journal into the King County Journal.

 

A colleague worked at Akron when Black came in.

Seriously, if you're in San Diego: Make sure your parachute is well packed.

 

I agree. Zeigler is the man. If you read his outstanding story on the downfall of Ken Caminiti, which was published in the Best American Sports Writing, you'd know what I mean. Problem is, he covers friggin' soccer and Olympic sports and writes the occasional feature/takeout, which, as we know, is a recipe for disaster if they were to clean house amongst the writers there.

Anyway, here's the link to that piece on Caminiti.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041031/news_lz1s31caminit.html

 

To paraphrase the Joker in Batman, this paper needs an enema.

It needs a redesign more than anything.

 

Yeah, redesigns always fix the problems with newspapers.

 

He wrote an APSE-winning gamer on SDSU/UCSB NCAA Tournament soccer that was one of the most weirdly compelling stories I've ever read. I'm not happy about his chances.

 

Careful ...

 

Re: San Diego U-T sold to equity group -- layoffs begin

from www.voiceofsandiego.org/this_just_in/#blurb3

The San Diego Union-Tribune is in the process of laying off at least 40 newsroom employees, two newsroom sources said.

Lorie Hearn, a senior editor at the newspaper, is in the midst of delivering the news to the affected employees, a source said.

Two sources said the employees are being given 60 days notice, a state requirement whenever a company lays off more than 50 people.

The layoffs are the first under the newspaper's new ownership. The Union-Tribune's sale to Beverly Hills-based Platinum Equity was completed Monday.

We'll have more later.

 

It's (unfortunately) Game On in San Diego

Once the private equity folks come in, bodies go out...

At the Union-Tribune, 190 workers shown the exit, with 40 of those in the newsroom.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/may/07/union-tribune-lays-190-workers/

Time for the vaunted Moddy Pipeline to start pumping out info...

EDIT: MTM put this up at roughly the same time on the SD U-T Sold To Private Equity thread, so feel free to delete this, Mods

 

Re: It's (unfortunately) Game On in San Diego

"The source tells KPBS that the new owners made signing a confidentiality clause a condition of continued employment."
I've heard of this when someone is shown the door, as a condition of generous severance, but I can't imagine a newspaper making employees sign a loyalty oath. Really, a gag order on employees? Great opening number by the new management. Can't wait for the follow-up.