Kochs don't want newspapers
LOS ANGELES - Billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch have scrapped their efforts to buy the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Co. newspapers, a Koch Industries spokeswoman said.
LOS ANGELES - Billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch have scrapped their efforts to buy the Los Angeles Times and other Tribune Co. newspapers, a Koch Industries spokeswoman said.
Word that the politically conservative brothers were interested in the chain's eight newspapers surfaced four months ago, prompting protests from labor unions and other groups who said they feared the newspapers' coverage would be skewed to favor antiunion objectives.
The Kochs' decision to not pursue the newspapers was first reported by the Daily Caller, a news website.
The website, citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the proceedings, said the Kochs conducted due diligence and determined that the newspapers were "not economically viable." They have not been interested in buying the newspapers for "a couple months," the website reported.
Melissa Cohlmia, a spokeswoman for Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries, confirmed that the company is no longer interested in the newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.
"Koch continues to have an interest in the media business and we're exploring a broad range of opportunities where we think we can add value. In terms of the Tribune, the Daily Caller story is accurate," Cohlmia wrote in an e-mail.
The Tribune Co. emerged from bankruptcy at the end of last year.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Orange County Register owner Aaron Kushner, and local Southern California philanthropist and businessman Eli Broad are all believed to be interested in the newspapers, said media analyst Ken Doctor said.