Ex-Chicago Sun-Times Chief May Buy Daily Pilot Newspaper

The owners of the Orange Coast Daily Pilot are negotiating to sell the daily newspaper to former Chicago Sun-Times publisher Robert E. Page, who is reportedly interested in building a string of community newspapers in Southern California.

Kirk Cheyfitz, president of the publishing division of Adams Communications Corp., which purchased the Pilot last year from Ingersoll Publications Co., confirmed that the company was negotiating the paper’s sale.

“We have been having some talks with Bob Page, and we might be able to conclude a transaction in the near future,” he said.

Cheyfitz emphasized that a sale was not yet certain, and said that no discussions had taken place with any other potential buyer despite the fact that Adams had received “no fewer than a dozen calls from people wanting to buy” the Pilot.

Cheyfitz added that Page, who heads a Boston-based company called Page Media, was “in a unique position” to profit from ownership of the paper, but he declined to elaborate.

Page, who was a publisher of the Boston Herald and the Chicago Sun-Times and led a management buyout of the Chicago paper from its former owner Rupert Murdoch in 1986, could not be reached for comment. He previously has expressed interest in acquiring community newspapers in California.

A source who asked not to be identified said Page was also seeking to acquire the Glendale News-Press, which is owned by game-show impresario Mark Goodson and managed by Ingersoll under a contract whose termination was announced on Tuesday. News-Press publisher Judy Kendall declined all comment on the report.

Goodson’s newspaper operations are reportedly strapped for cash after the purchase of the Morristown Daily Record in New Jersey two years ago for $155 million. Goodson announced Tuesday that he was selling the New Haven Register and terminating the longstanding agreement under which Ingersoll manages his newspapers.

The Orange Coast Daily Pilot, which primarily serves the Costa Mesa-Newport Beach area, has struggled with declining circulation and advertising revenue over the past decade, but Cheyfitz said a turnaround had begun since Adams purchased the paper.

Circulation, which had dropped to 20,000 last year from 40,000 in 1982, has rebounded by about 3,000, Cheyfitz said. Display advertising and classified ad revenues were also up, Cheyfitz said, but he could not provide figures.

The Pilot, which until 1983 was owned by Times Mirror Co., publisher of The Times, switched to morning publication earlier this year, and Cheyfitz said Adams was “really happy with the progress” that had been made since the acquisition. He noted that the weekly community newspaper operations that were purchased with the Pilot--the Huntington Beach Independent and the Fountain Valley Independent--were also doing very well.

Adams has launched new “Independent” weeklies in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa and has won its battle with Baker Communications, which recently closed the weekly Newport Beach Ensign.

Adams Communications, founded by soft-drink entrepreneur Stephen Adams in 1982, is based in the Minneapolis suburb of Wayzata and has holdings in radio, television, magazines and outdoor advertising, in addition to newspapers.

When the Pilot was sold to Adams last year, the paper was reportedly losing money, and the purchase price was not disclosed. Cheyfitz said that if the sale to Page was completed, it would be for “significantly more” than the price Adams had paid.

Rosemary Churchman, publisher of the Pilot, could not be reached for comment.