Newspaper Family Buys San Diego Transcript

The San Diego Transcript is being sold for an undisclosed amount to Calcomco, a recently formed newspaper company owned largely by the Revelle family of La Jolla, which has close ties to both San Diego and newspapering.

No changes are predicted for the 9,000-circulation business and financial newspaper, published Monday through Friday. It began publication in 1886.

Keith Lister, who acquired a controlling interest in the newspaper in 1972, will remain as president and publisher. He bought the paper from the Grandier family of San Diego, which had owned it since 1895.

“I guess maybe I have ink in my veins,” Ellen Revelle said Friday. Her grandfather, James E. Scripps, founded the Detroit News in 1873, and family members were involved in that paper until it was sold earlier this year.

The Revelle family also has many present-day and historical ties to San Diego County. Revelle’s great aunt, Ellen Browning Scripps, made considerable donations to many organizations, including the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Scripps Memorial Hospital and the San Diego Zoo.

Ellen Revelle’s husband, Roger R. Revelle, has been described as the “father” of UC San Diego.

The Revelle family’s ownership role in the Detroit News ended nine months ago when Scripps’ descendants and a handful of other owners sold the Evening News Assn., the News’ parent company, to the Gannett Corp. for $717 million.

“Newspapers have been something of a family tradition,” said Roger Revelle, a prominent educator and scientist. “Given that family tradition, this is something we all felt we wanted to do.”

In October, Roger Revelle, director emeritus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was one of four scientists to receive the prestigious but little-known Balzan Prize. He was honored for his work in oceanography and climatology.

“We’ve only been out of the newspaper business for nine months,” said the Revelles’ son, William Revelle, a Northwestern University psychology professor who will serve as Calcomco’s chairman. William Revelle, an Evanston, Ill., resident, had served for nine years as an Evening News Assn. board member.

Ellen Revelle said she was not involved directly with either the Detroit newspaper or its sister publications and television stations. However, given her family’s 113-year involvement with the Detroit News and other newspapers, she said, it felt “strange” not to be involved in the newspaper business.

“We were amazed, frankly, when we started looking at properties that such a quality paper was available so close to home,” William Revelle said on Friday. “Since our roots are in San Diego, we were particularly interested in finding a Southern California paper.”

William Revelle described Calcomco as “interested in acquiring quality newspapers anywhere in the country. But we’ll maintain the Transcript as our flagship.”

Lister and the Revelle family declined to discuss the purchase price, the Transcript’s revenue or its profitability.

William Revelle and Edwin C. Frederickson, formerly chief financial officer of the Detroit News and now Calcomco president, will conduct the search for more newspapers.

Calcomco initiated discussions with Lister several months ago after learning that one of the newspaper’s minority owners had died.

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh, not a legal newspaper,’ but once I saw it, I found it was a very interesting newspaper with good writers and a lot of local information in it,” Ellen Revelle said. “We had been looking at weekly newspapers, but when we found (the Transcript) we quickly changed our minds.”

Calcomco, a privately held corporation incorporated in Delaware, has several Revelles on its board.