The San Diego Daily Transcript, which has covered local business, law and real estate for 130 years, announced Wednesday that it will cease operations next month.
The final edition will be published Sept. 1, and the newspaper will close Sept. 21, publisher Robert Loomis said.
"The changing publishing paradigm has made the maintenance of a news organization of the size and scope represented by The Daily Transcript/San Diego Source in a market of San Diego's size problematic," Loomis wrote in a message to readers.
"While many cost-savings measures have been initiated in the past, including the enthusiastic embrace of rapidly changing technology, producing the daily news, data and information for which the company is known requires a relatively large number of employees with related support systems," Loomis said. "Increasing overhead, health care costs and the uncertain future of the news industry dictate that the company is no longer a viable business."
He said that after the last edition is printed, the paid subscription website at www.sddt.com will remain active for a few more weeks. "We hope a local university or library will accept the donation of our past editions and possibly even the web database so the news, data and information from the past can be a resource for future San Diego researchers and business people," Loomis said. "It has been a great ride, one more time, our sincere thanks to our employees, and the many advertisers and subscribers who have supported us during the last 130 years."
According to its website, the Transcript's roots go back to 1882, when it began publishing as the National City Record. It changed names through a variety of owners, and took on the Transcript name in 1886.
The current owners acquired the company in 1986.
Longtime publisher Ellen Revelle, who died in 2009, was the granddaughter of James E. Scripps, founder of The Detroit News, and the grandniece of E.W. Scripps, who established the Scripps Howard newspaper chain.
Her husband, Roger Revelle, a prominent scientist and oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was instrumental in bringing the University of California to San Diego. Their son William Revelle is the company chairman.
The Transcript launched San Diego Source in 1994, becoming the first newspaper in Southern California to publish on the Internet.
