Showing posts with label Platinum Equity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Platinum Equity. Show all posts

Thursday, May 21, 2009

L.A. Police Union Wants San Diego Newspaper Writers Fired

The union representing Los Angeles police officers is pressuring the owner of San Diego’s main newspaper to change the paper’s editorial stance on labor issues or to fire its editorial writers.

The feud is rooted in the recent purchase of the San Diego Union-Tribune by Platinum Equity, a private Beverly Hills firm.

Platinum relies on a $30-million investment from the pension fund of Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters, along with large sums from other public-employee pension systems around the state, to help fund its acquisitions of companies. As League President Paul M. Weber views it, that makes the League part owner in the flagging Tribune and League officials are none to happy with the paper’s consistent position that San Diego lawmakers should cut back on salaries and benefits for public employees in order to help close gaping budget deficits.

"Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced," Weber wrote in a March 26 letter to Platinum CEO Tom Gores. [Click for MORE]


Letter to Platinum 3-26-09-2 Sphere: Related Content

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

San Diego Union-Tribune Sold to Platinum Equity

The parent company of The San Diego Union-Tribune announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to sell the newspaper to the Beverly Hills private equity firm Platinum Equity for an undisclosed price.

La Jolla-based The Copley Press Inc. had been seeking a buyer since July 2008, when it hired investment bankers to explore “strategic options” amid a nationwide decline in newspaper advertising and circulation.

The firm said in a statement that its team includes David H. Black, whose company Black Press owns dozens of community newspapers, mostly in western Canada, and has expanded its U.S. presence with acquisitions of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2000 and the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal in 2006. [Click for MORE]

Elsewhere:

Sphere: Related Content