Mercury News: Bidding begins in McClatchy sale of 12 KR newspapers. Los Angeles investment firm Yucaipa Cos. and a group of Philadelphia investors made offers Tuesday for all or some of the 12 Knight Ridder newspapers McClatchy is selling. A spokesman for Yucaipa, which is allied with the Newspaper Guild, confirmed it had made a bid for all 12 newspapers, including the Mercury News. The Philadelphia investors made an offer for that city’s papers, the Inquirer and Daily News.
Dean Singleton’s MediaNews has also placed a bid, according to other reports. If so, his company has to be the odds-on favorite for at least some of the newspapers, notably those in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The employee proposal seems to be a serious one. I hope, if so, that there will soon be some serious investigative journalism into the life and activities of the man behind Yucaipa, Ron Burkle. So far we’ve seen almost nothing but puff pieces.