For Sale: San Diego Newspaper

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published July 24, 2008 at 3:10 PM PDT

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune is considering putting the newspaper on the market. The newspaper industry has been rocked in recent years with declining circulation and advertising dolla

The publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune is considering putting the newspaper on the market. The newspaper industry has been rocked in recent years with declining circulation and advertising dollars. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

The Copley Press says it's hired an investment banker to explore a potential sale of the Union-Tribune.

The paper is the 21st largest U.S. daily newspaper in circulation and has more than 1,000 employees.

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Drew Schlosberg with Copley Press says the company has hired Evercore Partners, a New York-based investment banking firm to look at options for selling the newspaper.

Schlosberg: We're going to wait until we get the recommendations back from our investment group and we'll take it from there. But we're going to continue to put out the best product and products we can and find creative ways to build our audience and our revenue.

Evercore represented Copley Press in the sale of newspapers it previously owned in Los Angeles, Illinois and Ohio.

Like many major metropolitan dailies, the U-T has struggled with dropping readership and a decline in advertising revenue.

Part of the reason is the rise of the Internet.

Earlier this year the Union-Tribune cut 10 percent of its work force.

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And last month Copley Press sold its wire/syndication service to a Los Angeles company.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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