Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Could U-T's new owner steal Chargers for L.A.?

Chicago newspaper chain may control final destiny of San Diego’s home team

Though Doug Manchester's U-T San Diego has yet to report it, the biggest threat to keeping the Chargers in town may turn out to be Manchester's current effort to sell the paper to the owners of the Los Angeles Times.

As previously noted here, word circulating in what remains of the world of big daily newspapers has it that the voluble Manchester wants to unload the once-proud Republican organ, formerly known as the Union-Tribune, to Chicago-based Tribune Publishing.

"While the acquisition could have closed as early as today,” reported media maven Ken Doctor in a March 3 blog post, “it’s now been held up by a familiar concern in newspaper property sales: pension obligations.

Sponsored
Sponsored

U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester had given Tribune Publishing a short-term exclusivity agreement, as it worked to a completed purchase agreement. That exclusivity is lapsing, as further due diligence is being done and bids reconfigured."

Continued Doctor, "The purchase price would likely be in the range of $80–90 million, with the buyer also assuming the pension obligations of the U-T, estimated at more than $60 million."

So far, no details have emerged about the pension obligations or what the extended due diligence may have discovered, but according to Doctor, Manchester — San Diego's GOP godfather of funding and political spin — wants to dump his journalistic emporium on Tribune as quickly as possible.

That, keen-eyed city hall insiders note, would coincide neatly with the threatened move of the Chargers to points north, thereby creating a lucrative new sports and advertising franchise for the L.A. Times, Tribune's flagship property.

A Times owner running the San Diego paper would be much less likely to favor efforts to force the football team to stay in the city by use of litigation, goes this line of thinking, and might even be willing to throw the new stadium game by baldly promoting untenable proposals, including a billion-dollar-plus taxpayer-funded subsidy for the team's wealthy Spanos family.

Douglas Manchester
Irwin Jacobs

Manchester has been plotting to unload the paper for at least a year, say insiders.

The first public word of a possible transfer of ownership came here last September, when Don Bauder broke the story that Point Loma yachtsman and real estate mogul Malin Burnham was organizing a nonprofit corporation to take control of the paper with Manchester's blessing, depending on how the deal was done for his benefit, tax-wise.

Burnham's move is seen in some circles as a way for wealthy locals — perhaps to include Qualcomm co-founder and Democratic billionaire Irwin Jacobs — to use the U-T to pull the strings of public opinion with a combined strategy of factual omissions, biased coverage, and editorial attacks on political enemies, much as Manchester’s critics say he has done.

A likely political beneficiary is identified as Nathan Fletcher, the ex-Republican Assemblyman who switched his registration to decline-to-state and then to the Democratic Party in a thus-far futile effort to be elected mayor with the help of Jacobs.

A sale to the L.A. Times, while introducing its own biases — including a lock-in of the Chargers’ move north — would block the locals' political power play.

“There would be real concern among people in San Diego about L.A. people coming in, of sending down Times reporters,” ex-Cox cable chief Bill Geppert told Doctor. Geppert is associated with Burnham in the nonprofit venture.

"Geppert says the group of about 15 local philanthropists has pledged more than half the money needed to buy the newspaper assets," Doctor reported. "The group’s driving theme: sustain the paper through more digital dislocation — and add back to the reporting staff."

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Yo-Yo Ma, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky come to San Diego

Though Doug Manchester's U-T San Diego has yet to report it, the biggest threat to keeping the Chargers in town may turn out to be Manchester's current effort to sell the paper to the owners of the Los Angeles Times.

As previously noted here, word circulating in what remains of the world of big daily newspapers has it that the voluble Manchester wants to unload the once-proud Republican organ, formerly known as the Union-Tribune, to Chicago-based Tribune Publishing.

"While the acquisition could have closed as early as today,” reported media maven Ken Doctor in a March 3 blog post, “it’s now been held up by a familiar concern in newspaper property sales: pension obligations.

Sponsored
Sponsored

U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester had given Tribune Publishing a short-term exclusivity agreement, as it worked to a completed purchase agreement. That exclusivity is lapsing, as further due diligence is being done and bids reconfigured."

Continued Doctor, "The purchase price would likely be in the range of $80–90 million, with the buyer also assuming the pension obligations of the U-T, estimated at more than $60 million."

So far, no details have emerged about the pension obligations or what the extended due diligence may have discovered, but according to Doctor, Manchester — San Diego's GOP godfather of funding and political spin — wants to dump his journalistic emporium on Tribune as quickly as possible.

That, keen-eyed city hall insiders note, would coincide neatly with the threatened move of the Chargers to points north, thereby creating a lucrative new sports and advertising franchise for the L.A. Times, Tribune's flagship property.

A Times owner running the San Diego paper would be much less likely to favor efforts to force the football team to stay in the city by use of litigation, goes this line of thinking, and might even be willing to throw the new stadium game by baldly promoting untenable proposals, including a billion-dollar-plus taxpayer-funded subsidy for the team's wealthy Spanos family.

Douglas Manchester
Irwin Jacobs

Manchester has been plotting to unload the paper for at least a year, say insiders.

The first public word of a possible transfer of ownership came here last September, when Don Bauder broke the story that Point Loma yachtsman and real estate mogul Malin Burnham was organizing a nonprofit corporation to take control of the paper with Manchester's blessing, depending on how the deal was done for his benefit, tax-wise.

Burnham's move is seen in some circles as a way for wealthy locals — perhaps to include Qualcomm co-founder and Democratic billionaire Irwin Jacobs — to use the U-T to pull the strings of public opinion with a combined strategy of factual omissions, biased coverage, and editorial attacks on political enemies, much as Manchester’s critics say he has done.

A likely political beneficiary is identified as Nathan Fletcher, the ex-Republican Assemblyman who switched his registration to decline-to-state and then to the Democratic Party in a thus-far futile effort to be elected mayor with the help of Jacobs.

A sale to the L.A. Times, while introducing its own biases — including a lock-in of the Chargers’ move north — would block the locals' political power play.

“There would be real concern among people in San Diego about L.A. people coming in, of sending down Times reporters,” ex-Cox cable chief Bill Geppert told Doctor. Geppert is associated with Burnham in the nonprofit venture.

"Geppert says the group of about 15 local philanthropists has pledged more than half the money needed to buy the newspaper assets," Doctor reported. "The group’s driving theme: sustain the paper through more digital dislocation — and add back to the reporting staff."

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

India Hawthorne is common in coastal gardens, Citrus trees are in full bloom

The vernal equinox is on March 19
Next Article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.