LA Times parent company wins bid for Orange County Register, Riverside Press-Enterprise, antitrust battle looms

LOS ANGELES >> The Los Angeles Times’ parent owner, Tribune Publishing Co., won an auction in federal court Wednesday for the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise and other assets of the bankrupt Freedom Communications.

A Tribune subsidiary, Orange County Media LLC, bid $56 million Wednesday.

Tribune, which owns the Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune, was one of three would-be purchasers for Freedom, including Digital First Media — which owns nine daily newspapers in Southe Califoia, including this one — and a group that includes current Freedom Communications President and CEO Rich Mirman.

“The successful bid for the business of Freedom Communications will allow the Orange County Register and the Press-Enterprise to continue providing a distinct local voice in their communities and deliver premium news and information to consumers across Southe Califoia,” said Tribune Publishing CEO Justin Dearbo.

Wednesday’s bid, which still has to be approved at a bankruptcy court hearing in Santa Ana Monday, may face a legal challenge.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice waed Tribune that picking up the dominant newspapers in Orange and Riverside counties could create an illegal monopoly in the region.

“Based on our review to date, the (Antitrust) Division believes that the acquisition of the Freedom assets by Tribune Publishing Company poses a serious risk of harming newspaper readers and advertisers in Orange County and Riverside County,” Assistant Attoey General William J. Baer wrote in a letter to Alan Friedman, Freedom Communications’ bankruptcy attoey.

In his letter, Baer wrote that, based on the department’s review as of March 14, “the division does not have the same (antitrust) conces with the acquisition of Freedom by either of the other entities that have been reported to have submitted bids.”

The impending sale of Freedom Communications marks the latest change in four dramatic years for the company.

In Julyu20092012, greeting card executive Aaron Kushner and his partner, Eric Spitz, bought the company with an ambitious plan of investing in print joualism in an era when sharp declines in print revenue had already led to deep cuts in newsrooms and the closures of newspapers nationwide.

Freedom sold off its smaller papers, including the Victorville Daily Press in the High Desert even as it more than doubled its Santau2009Ana newsroom staff and aounced ambitious plans to enter the Longu2009Beach and Losu2009Angeles markets with Register newspapers for each. In 2013, Freedom purchased the Press-Enterprise for $27u2009million.

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That strategy was short-lived. The LAu2009Register lasted only five months, and the Longu2009Beach Register lasted 16. Strapped for cash, the Register was forced into three rounds of layoffs and buyouts. Kushner and Spitz left Freedom in Marchu20092015, less than three years after they acquired it. In November, Freedom Communications declared bankruptcy.

City News Service contributed to this report.