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AKRON, Ohio - The deadline to submit bids for the Akron Beacon Journal is days away, and several interested parties have toured the building or met off-site with the newspaper's managers.
The Beacon Journal is the largest of six newspapers still to be sold as part of Sacramento-based McClatchy Co.'s takeover of Knight Ridder Inc., which is expected to be completed by July 1.
Parties that have expressed an interest in the Beacon Journal include New York's Advance Publications Inc., which also owns and publishes the Plain Dealer in Cleveland.
Officials from the Plain Dealer and Advance met with high-ranking Beacon Journal managers on May 17 and 18.
Representatives of Black Press Ltd., a chain concentrated in Vancouver, British Columbia, toured the newspaper May 1.
Black and partner Onex Corp. bid for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, but lost out to a group of local private investors.
Black Chief Executive and owner David Black has said the company is interested in other Knight Ridder papers.
Representatives of HM Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Dallas, have met with Beacon Journal managers, according to people close to the process.
HM was formerly named Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. The firm was co-founded by Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, who retired at the end of 2004.
The leveraged buyout firm typically targets underperforming companies in specific niches, builds them up and sells them or spins them off. It owns properties involved in cable TV, radio, gas production and transmission, and branded foods.
Yucaipa Cos., a private equity firm in California, also has expressed interest.
Yucaipa, controlled by billionaire Ron Burkle, answered the call of the Newspaper Guild after Knight Ridder put itself up for sale in November. The Guild represents employees at some Knight Ridder newspapers. Reporters, photographers, copy editors, artists and page designers at the Beacon Journal are members of the union.
Yucaipa has agreed to allow employees to buy an ownership stake in any newspaper it succeeds in purchasing.
Yucaipa also lost its bid to buy the Philadelphia newspapers.
Yucaipa representatives toured the Duluth News Tribune in Minnesota on Wednesday and are interested in other Knight Ridder newspapers.
The sales are the culmination of McClatchy's purchase of Knight Ridder.
In March, McClatchy announced a deal valued at $6.5 billion, including assumption of debt, to buy the nation's second-largest newspaper company.
McClatchy immediately announced it would sell 12 of Knight Ridder's 32 daily newspapers. McClatchy said the 12 didn't meet its desire to be located only in fast-growing markets.
With the resale of the Philadelphia newspapers announced Tuesday, half of the 12 papers have found new owners.
The six sales have totaled $1.56 billion. McClatchy has said it wants to get $2 billion from all 12 sales.
Bidders for the final six newspapers are expected to submit offers by Wednesday, McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt told the Sacramento Bee.
The other newspapers to be sold are the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald, the Aberdeen (S.D.) American News, the Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Times Leader and the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel.
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(c) 2006, Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio). Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service.
