Search Blog
Unidentified Buyer Gives A Ray Of Hope To Freedom’s East Valley Tribune
An unidentified buyer offered to continue the services of an Arizona newspaper of Freedom Communications Inc. Due to this; Freedom Communications Inc. will have to wait before putting an end to the paper. According to the report of Julie Moreno, publisher for the Phoenix-area newspaper, the interested buyer clearly mentioned his intentions in a letter that was being sent to Freedom, the parent company of the Orange County Register. Freedom is waiting for approval from the bankruptcy judge.
Based on the reports of Freedom, there seems to be an indication of keeping a certain number of Tribune employees from the buyer’s side. Freedom has decided to put an end to East Valley Tribune, the third-largest paper that was having an overall circulation of about 90,000. There has been a cut down on the production aspect of the East Valley Tribune since January. Initially it came seven days a week but later on the production was cut to four and finally to three days a week. In case Freedom is not able to find an appropriate buyer then the services including the paper and website are likely to be closed by 31 December. The Register has the largest number of 213,000 subscribers followed by the Gazette in Colorado Springs, Colo. at the next position with 96,000 subscribers..
Register Publisher Terry Horne joined the paper in the year 2007 from the East Valley Tribune, which has been around since the year 1891. Freedom is planning to put the company in the hands of a group of 27 lenders. This group is supposed to be headed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. The two private equity investors along with “R.C.” Hoiles, the family of founder Raymond Cyrus is ready to face the cut down of their stakes by 2%. But there is an option of buying back 10% of the company. The plan will result in cutting the company’s debt from $1 billion to $325 million.