A key shareholder in Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. is considering an acquisition or combination involving the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Daily News.
New York-based Alden Global Capital is part of a consortium of lenders that hold a stake in Freedom, parent of the Register.
The private equity firm also owns part of Affiliated Media Inc., the holding company for Denver-based MediaNews Group, publisher of the Daily News.
Freedom owns more than 40 newspapers, a number of TV stations and other media properties.
The company has been considering a sale of various assets for months. A Freedom spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that “a number of strategic buyers” have approached the company. He declined to offer any details.
The Los Angeles Daily News is the flagship for MediaNews Group’s nine publications in Southern California. The company owns about 40 others newspapers around the U.S., including the Denver Post.
Speculation about a deal involving MediaNews followed the company’s announcement of an executive shakeup and three new board members at the company.
One of the new board members is from Alden and another from its parent, New York-based Smith Management LLC.
Alden announced that William Dean Singleton will exit as chairman and chief executive of MediaNews. Singleton will remain as executive chairman after the boardroom shakeup.
The new board members from Alden and Smith Management will replace appointees of Singleton, including MediaNews President Joseph “Jody” Lodovic, who retired immediately.
MediaNews said the shakeup will “position the company to identify, pursue and execute on strategic consolidation opportunities.”
Both MediaNews and Freedom have recently emerged from bankruptcies that allowed them to shed hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.
Alden became part-owner of both companies after their bankruptcies. It also holds a stake in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News and part of the Journal Register Co., which publishes the New Haven Register and other newspapers.
An unnamed source told the Wall Street Journal that Alden wants to combine some of the newspapers into one company.
MediaNews Group and Freedom already have a business relationship. The Register prints a number of MediaNews Group’s newspapers.
Singleton pushed the idea of mergers and consolidations in the newspaper industry as MediaNews went through bankruptcy.
