Justice Department Delays Freedom Bid

Freedom Newspapers’ attempt to buy and then shut down its only competitor in Colorado Springs has been temporarily delayed by the U.S. Justice Department to allow the competitor to find another buyer.

Under an agreement reached between the Colorado Springs Sun and the U.S. Department of Justice, the Sun has until March 1 to find another buyer besides Freedom, which has already announced its intention to spend $30 million to buy and then close the 49,000-daily circulation paper. Santa Ana-based Freedom, publisher of the Orange County Register, owns the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, a two-edition daily with a combined circulation of 92,000.

The Justice Department is reviewing the pending sale in an effort to insure that competition between the papers is not eliminated without exploring other possible sales opportunities.

Sun editor Robert Franken said the paper has hired a broker “to make one last check to see if there is anyone out there.” However, Franken, noting that the Sun has been on the market for several years, doubted that another buyer would be found.

R. David Threshie, publisher of the Register and a member of the executive committee of Freedom Newspapers Inc., said the delay would not affect the chain’s purchase offer.

“We’re still interested in buying the paper,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that we have to wait until March 1.”

The Sun, which has consistently lost money for the last several years, was purchased in 1977 by the Oklahoma Publishing Co. in Oklahoma City for $3 million. Franken said the $30 million Freedom is proposing to spend for the paper is considered an “attractive offer.”