Paper Trails

San Diego — Copley Press employees at the company's Peoria (IL) Journal Star are atwitter over reports that well-heeled locals are eyeing the paper, which is for sale as part of owner David Copley's plan to liquidate all of the chain but its flagship Union-Tribune. "At least one prominent Peorian started making calls to other area citizens with deep pockets, which has morphed into a serious discussion among a few local businessmen about what it would take to buy the paper," wrote Jennifer Davis and Molly Parker. "And just to be clear, we are talking about rumblings of serious discussions, not like Councilman Gary Sandberg's joke of an attempt, which basically consists of him telling people he's trying to buy the paper. Hmmm, he might be an interesting boss, though. Maybe he'd replace all the Journal Star cars with Harley-Davidsons." A more serious observer notes that if the company is entertaining local bids, it may mean that large, deep-pocketed newspaper chains and investment funds aren't much interested in the Copley properties. ... In other Copley news, LA Observed, a blog about all things Los Angeles, reports hearing rumors that the sale of the Torrance Daily Breeze to Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group will mean the end of the Copley News Service's venerable L.A. bureau. Gordon Smith, the bureau chief who once was a reporter for the U-T, and Dan Laidman work there. ... Onetime San Diego city school board candidate Johnnie Perkins, who's had a variety of jobs carrying water for some of the city's biggest corporate and labor institutions, including San Diego Landfill Systems, owned by Allied Waste; the San Diego County Trash Association; and the San Diego City Firefighters union, has moved from his most recent employer, EDCO, another big trash hauler, back to Allied Waste Services, this time as director of municipal marketing and sales for Southern California.