Union-Tribune Finds a Buyer…A Foreign One (Hint: Canadian)

The Canadians are providing us with jobs. Eep.

Now you’ll have something to talk about at the Mediabistro Cocktail Party in San Diego next week.

Thomas Kupper reports:

The parent company of The San Diego Union-Tribune announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to sell the newspaper to the Beverly Hills private equity firm Platinum Equity for an undisclosed price.

La Jolla-based The Copley Press Inc. had been seeking a buyer since July 2008, when it hired investment bankers to explore “strategic options” amid a nationwide decline in newspaper advertising and circulation.

Copley executive vice president Harold W. Fuson Jr. said Platinum emerged from that process as the bidder best equipped to maintain the Union-Tribune’s position as one of San Diego’s leading institutions.

And:

Samson could not immediately be reached for further details of Platinum’s plans for the newspaper. The firm said in a statement that its team includes David H. Black, whose company Black Press owns dozens of community newspapers, mostly in western Canada, and has expanded its U.S. presence with acquisitions of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2000 and the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal in 2006.

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