The Morning Report
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Developer and U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester now owns two major daily newspapers in the San Diego region: The company jointly owned by Manchester and his partner, U-T CEO John Lynch, bought the North County Times for $11.95 million. Voice of San Diego reporter Rob Davis is on the story and has been tweeting about it this morning:
Oooookaayyy. So U-T San Diego didn’t buy the North County Times on Monday. But it did Tuesday. utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/…
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
Manchester: “[W]e intend to super serve each and every market in which we enter. Since San Diego is our home this is a logical acquisition.”
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
NCT publisher confirms that, yes indeed, the sale is complete now. Today. For real. nctimes.com/business/north…
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
Yesterday’s non-sale fiasco has the bad odor of a case of We Wanted to Control Our News So We Denied The Report.
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
U-T’s CEO, John Lynch, says North County Times’ coverage of prep & youth sports was attractive.
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
The man who calls himself Papa Doug now owns all of San Diego’s major papers. Good time to reread my profile of him. voiceofsandiego.org/environment/mu…
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
If U-T San Diego bought the North County Times, would it make a sound? Not much of one in the U-T. twitter.com/robwdavis/stat…
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
Spoke with NCT Publisher Peter York. Expect layoffs? “Yeah, probably.” Doesn’t expect more than 50, which would trigger formal warning.
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
Asked York what it means for the paper. He said he doesn’t know. Hasn’t talked to U-T people. Doesn’t know whether name will remain NCT.
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
Lee Enterprises’ formal announcement of the NCT sale to Doug Manchester pins sale price at $11.9M (thanks @drolland). lee.net/newsreleases/p…
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
That’s roughly 10% as much as Manchester paid for The San Diego Union-Tribune late last year.
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) September 11, 2012
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Dagny Salas is the web editor at Voice of San Diego. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
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