LA Media Rumblings
For you folks with your eye on the LA media market, you'll find it interesting that Freedom Communications (owners of the Orange County Register) has received a lot of interest from potential buyers, according to the Associated Press. There were 26 "preliminary expressions of interest during a first round of bids," AP says.

The sale of the Register (with a 320,000 circulation) could have big implications for the Southern California news market, which is dominated by Tribune Co.'s LA Times. It also owns KTLA and a half of the biggest Spanish-language paper, La Opinion. The closest competitor is Dean Singleton's Media News Group, which has acquired a chain of papers making a ring around Los Angeles. The papers include the LA Daily News, the Long Beach Press Telegram and the San Bernardino County Sun. The Times has a circulation of around 1 million, which is about what Singleton now has when you combine all his LA papers. That's a big deal for ad sales, not to mention the diversity of news voices. So throw in the potential that the long-independent Orange County Register is up for sale, things could start to get very interesting. And if you're still with me -- just as interesting is whether Singleton and Tribune will look to buy more TV stations in the area now that the FCC ownership rules are changing.

Background from the old LAExaminer.com:

FREEDOM: WE'RE FOR SALE
WOULD SALE STIFLE OC REGISTER'S LIBERTARIANISM?
SINGLETON: I'M READY TO BUY LAT OPTION

and

FORMER SB NEWS-PRESSERS START GOLETA WEEKLY for some other big chains with their toes in the water just up the coast a bit.
- posted by Amy @ 7/11/2003 12:03:00 PM