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Last night at the literal eleventh hour an email went out to all Register staffers postponing a big meeting planned for this morning. Eventually, the news was allowed to break. The newspaper's parent company has reemerged from bankruptcy, "relieved of $450 million in debt but bringing to an end family ownership of a media chain that provided a unique voice in American journalism." From the Register's story:
Three investment companies — Alden Global Capital, Angelo Gordon & Co. and Luxor Capital Group — and a group of lenders led by JPMorgan Chase will assume ownership of Freedom, which is the parent of The Orange County Register. A breakdown of their relative positions was not immediately available....Freedom’s founding Hoiles family will no longer have an interest in the company, ending more than 75 years of ownership that started with Raymond Cyrus “R.C.” Hoiles, who purchased the Register in 1935 as a platform for his libertarian views on individual freedom and limited government.
“We’re out and that’s great,” said Burl Osborne, Freedom chief executive. “A great umbrella of uncertainty is lifted. It means Freedom is a company. It’s a viable company and we’ll be a strong company and have the wherewithal to be successful in the near and far future.”
Osborne said he has seen no indication the company would move away from its long-held libertarian views.
In keeping with libertarian principles, however, he said it would be left to the individual properties to reflect the values of their communities.
Osborne said he does not expect any wholesale layoffs, according to the paper. Angelo Gordon, by the way, recently has also "maneuvered into an influential position at Tribune Co." — which owns the Los Angeles Times, the Register's chief competitor, and which remains in bankruptcy. Stay tuned.