B.C. publisher buys San Diego newspaper

B.C. community newspaper publisher David Black has enough faith in
newspapers that he’s involved himself in bigger American leagues.

A Globe and Mail business story reports on Black’s deal to buy the San Diego Union-Tribune, with private U.S. equity player Platinum Equity. (Union Trib story here.)
Black acted in the San Diego purchase as an individual, noted the
Globe, but he’s best known for privately held Black Press Ltd. of
Victoria, of which about 20 per cent is held by Torstar Corp.

Black’s
reputation as a publisher is as a cost-cutter whose focus is more on
business than journalism. And it’s mixed, as a smattering of comments
about the Globe story might suggest: Black publications represent “a
fine small newspaper” or “Bird cage liner,” said readers.

An online, non-profit San Diego magazine, voiceofsandiego.org, dug a ways into the Union Trib deal, and its implications for journalism, by interviewing some smart analysts.