Now that the Tribune Company has filed for Bankrupcy...this item from a blog is of interest:
What a Tribune Company bankruptcy could mean for California
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The announcement that the Tribune Company, owner of the LA Times, has filed for bankruptcy could have far reaching implications for the California newspaper industry -- and more importantly, on how news is reported on and delivered in the state and nationally.
Even before the announcement there was mounting speculation about what will happen to the numerous struggling newspapers in the state. A recent Financial Times report raised the prospect of some kind of merger or collaboration between the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, which is struggling, and the San Diego Union Tribune, which is also struggling and is up for sale.
Rumors of a
merger of the OC Register and the Times have been floating around for weeks. The most intriguing rumor of all is that the LA Times and the OC Register might merge or come under the banner of Dean Singleton's MediaNews, as reported in the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street item and noted in
LAObserved.
California is where easily the majority of MediaNews' daily newspaper holdings are -- and make it the dominant newspaper owner, by far, in the state.
Singleton's approach -- which is to buy up newspapers in a single market area, and then share reporters, editing staff, office space, and other costs -- may be the only new potentially viable business model to have emerged from the catastrophic restructuring that the media industry is currently undergoing. This approach does not guarantee journalistic quality -- but it does offer strategy, albeit a despressing one, for how to cut costs.
What's significant is that
29 of Singleton's daily newspapers are in Northern California,and only 16 are in Southern California -- where the majority of Californians live.
Bringing together the LA Times, the San Diego Union Tribune and the Orange County Register would, in effect, replicate in Southern California Singleton's organizational structure in Northern California, but on a more ambitious scale than anything he has thus far attempted.
Whatever value the OC Register had left, whatever positive Libertarian views it espouse will be history if this ever happens.
This will just hasten it’s demise.