Celebrations are breaking out in some quarters of San Diego today as it was announced that the LA Times is buying the U-T San Diego.
Here is the LA Times account:
The parent company of the Los Angeles Times has agreed to buy the U-T San Diego, uniting the newspapers of California’s two largest cities under common ownership. Tribune Publishing — owner of The Times, the Chicago Tribune and other daily newspapers — announced Thursday that it will pay $85 million in a cash-and-stock deal for the U-T, eight community weeklies and related websites.
The acquisition will extend the company’s reach into the country’s eighth-largest city and give it a dominant position over a wide swath of Southern California.
“We’re combining two of the most enduring institutions in California,” said Austin Beutner, Times publisher and chief executive. “We can take the best of what each newsroom can offer, and offer it to a broader customer base.”
Beutner will serve as publisher of both papers and as chief executive of the newly formed California News Group, which will oversee Tribune Publishing operations in the two markets. He said the U-T would remain a separate newspaper, with an “authentic voice” reflecting its community. Beutner pledged to preserve its editorial independence. He added: “I also know the Los Angeles Times will benefit from a closer connection with its older sibling down south.”
Executives at both papers are examining how operations can be consolidated. One possibility is that The Times will print the San Diego paper. FOR MORE.
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Thanks for running this historic Page One, so I didn’t have to go out and buy the U-T.
Personally, I am thrilled with this news and hope it means I can read the best U-T writers
inside the pages of my daily Los Angeles Times, a diminished but still-great newspaper.
And I thought progressives were anti-big business and pro diversity. Say hello to the San Diego/LA/Chicago Tribune.
The liberal-ness of the LA Times has trumped anything else in this backward city where the U-T has ruled with its conservative, reactionary bias for decades.