San Diego paper to be sold to same-sex marriage foe, ex-radio exec

The San Diego Union-Tribune will be sold to a local developer and a longtime radio executive, the newspaper's owner announced Thursday. Terms were not disclosed.

Platinum Equity, which bought the newspaper in 2009 from Copley Press, announced the sale to developer Douglas Manchester and former radio executive John Lynch.

"We believe San Diego is the finest city in America and pledge to be strong advocates for the city's interests and conscientious caretakers of the Union-Tribune and its legacy," Manchester said in a statement.

The sale is set to close by Dec. 15.

The Union-Tribune in the last decade has been beset by the same woes striking the rest of the industry: declines in advertising revenue and circulation. The paper has used a common strategy of layoffs and cutbacks and transfer of energy to its website.

Manchester is best known as a developer of hotel properties. He also donated $125,000 in 2008 to help the effort to gather signatures in support of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

Lynch was an executive with Noble Broadcast Group that grew from a single radio station to one of the largest broadcast groups in the country before selling to Clear Channel Communications.

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-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: The San Diego Union-Tribune building. Credit: KSWB-TV