UNION-TRIB MAY BE SOLD SOON

San Diego -- The San Diego Union Tribune may soon be sold, according to sources inside the newspaper.
The U-T has been having difficulties for some time.
Advertising revenue is down. Circulation is down. The only part of the business that reportedly is thriving is its on-line division, SignOnSanDiego.com; but it isn't strong enough to support the newspaper independently, according to knowledgeable sources who must remain anonymous because of the delicate nature of the situation.
Many of the newspaper's key staffers have accepted a buy-out offer from management to reduce the size and cost of the U-T's staff; especially the long-time, senior employees who cost the most in salaries.
The newspaper's owner, David Copley, Jr., was recently "outted" publicly as a gay man by Nicole Ramirez Murray in the Gay & Lesbian Times.
An inside source told San Diego News Service that being "outted" really hit Copley hard. It reportedly forced him to make the decision to sell the newspaper more quickly than he had originally intended.
Now, sources inside the newspaper say a sale is imminent.
Rumors about the sale are rapidly circulating among the U-T's staff every day, according to staffers who spoke to San Diego News Service.
Some hope that Rupert Murdock might buy the newspaper. He has a reputation of buying independent, local newspapers and putting serious money into their operations for improvement while letting them remain editorially independent.
Murdock successfully accomplished that with the Middletown Times Herald-Record in Middletown, New York; about 40 miles above New York City. That newspaper remains a major force in mid-Hudson Valley journalism publishing a daily, 68-page newspaper.
______________________
Copyright, 2008, by journalist Leo E. Laurence, San Diego News Service, leopowerhere@msn.com (619) 757-4909