Union-Tribune online for $3 a year

U-T on the cheap

A year-end offer of cut-rate, online-only subscription prices has triggered another round of speculation that the once-venerable San Diego Union-Tribune may be losing its life in print. New subscribers can get the U-T’s so-called e-edition for just $3 for their entire first year, according to an online offer. At the end of 52 weeks, if subscribers hold on that long, the cost jumps to $3.99 a week. “Offer is only available to new subscribers and subscribers who have not had an active subscription in the past 180 days,” per the fine print. 

The U-T’s subscription deal is a third of the price of those being offered by other Alden-owned papers, including the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Denver Post, and Orange County Register, all currently advertising $9 for the first year, with renewals after that range from $4.99 a week in Chicago and Baltimore to $14.99 a month in Denver and $3.50 a week in Orange County. By comparison, the Los Angeles Times, owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong, who sold the U-T to Alden in July of last year, is currently charging one dollar for six months, with renewals $4 a week thereafter. 

Along with the bargain rates, U-T subscribers can stuff their email boxes full of newly hatched newsletters, including Watchdog Week (“Hold your local officials and institutions to account with original investigative, watchdog and government reporting.”), San Diego Union-Tribune en Español, and U-T Business. Since both print space and staff for those topics have been slashed by Alden, it remains unclear how successful the newsletters will prove, but Alden, a widely known vulture investment fund, is said to be counting on the growth of newsletter advertising to offset falling print revenue.

Gambling wars

Termed-out San Diego state Senate Democrat Toni Atkins, gearing up to run for Lieutenant Governor in 2026, continues her blistering special interest fundraising pace, picking up $5000 from the Sports Betting Alliance, using a Lubbock, Texas address, on December 26. Back in November 2022, ex-Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry became the public face of the alliance, according to an account by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. “This is a way to regulate and to make legal this activity that is going to go on,” Perry declared. “The idea that somehow or another people are going to stop betting on sports is a bit of a fallacy. Well, it is just not going to happen.” Perry added, “I love the idea that the Texas House is going to bring this forward. Two-thirds of them have to agree to it, two-thirds of the Senate, then it goes to the people of the state.” 

Rick Perry: betting on people betting is a safe bet.

But the ex-governor, who was Donald Trump’s Secretary of Energy, is not without controversy. According to a September 10, 2020 account by ProPublica, “Perry was a leading figure in the impeachment inquiry last fall. He was among the officials, known as the ‘three amigos,’ who ran a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine on Trump’s behalf. Their aim, according to the findings  of the impeachment inquiry in the House, was to embarrass Trump’s main political rival, Joe Biden.” 

Perry’s battle for gambling was waylaid last year by the Texas legislature, despite the big money behind the effort, forcing the pro-gambling forces to target the 2025 legislative session to get a legalization measure on the ballot. “The Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Stars, Dallas Mavericks, Texas Rangers and FC Dallas are partners in the Texas Sports Betting Alliance, along with other teams across the state,” says the NBC report. “So too are large sports websites like Bet MGM, Draft Kings, Fanduel and Barstool Sports Book.” 

On December 20, 2023, the Sports Betting Alliance, using an Arlington, Virginia address, registered a California campaign committee called Sports Betting Alliance NONPROFIT 501(C)(6). On December 19 the committee gave $13,000 to the California Democratic Party and $1000 each to 34 legislative incumbents and candidates, including Assembly Democrat from San Diego Chris Ward. State senator Monique Limón got $2000.

Payback city

San Diego mayor Todd Gloria, running both for reelection and for a seat on the county Democratic Party Central Committee, pulled in $6500 on the day after Christmas from the Sacramento-based California Apartment Association’s political action committee. Meanwhile, painting contractor Onofrio Pecoraro gave $1000 on December 13 to Republican ex-mayor Kevin Faulconer’s county supervisorial bid against Democratic incumbent Terra Lawson-Remer. His father Nick is widely known as the Godfather of Little Italy. “Silver fox Nick Pecoraro dons his dark black sunglasses, gold chain, and Italian leather shoes as he sits in front of his large, yellow house on India Street,” reported KNSD TV in an October 21, 2018 account. “Once in a while, they call me the mayor or the Godfather,” Pecoraro told the station, which reported that “the local Godfather has lived in his gilded, yellow house for 51 years. He inherited it from his father-in-law who was one of the original fishermen in the neighborhood. Pecoraro stayed in the house, even after many of his neighbors left for the suburbs. He’s been offered more than $8 million for his home, but refuses to sell.” 

Kevin Faulconer got a little love from Little Italy.

In July 2020, then-mayor Faulconer signed an executive order during the Covid 19 pandemic allowing Little Italy restaurants to expand their seating to city sidewalks. The move allowed “restaurants to install dining areas on sidewalks, patios, and even adjacent parking lots without having to apply for permits,” per a July 7, 2020, KNSD report. “Those permits can cost up to $1000 and take several months to be processed and approved, according to Faulconer.” Noted KNSD’s Pecoraro story: “Little Italy’s Godfather said he loves all the restaurants in the area, even personally knowing at least half the owners in town.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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