Page Agrees to Buy Daily Pilot and 4 Weekly Papers

Robert E. Page, former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and Boston Herald, has agreed as expected to purchase the Orange Coast Daily Pilot and four local weekly newspapers from Adams Communications Corp. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but sources pegged the price at around $7 million.

Page said the Pilot offices in Costa Mesa would serve as headquarters for a “Southern California publishing company,” and that “other transactions are pending.”

He declined to discuss what other papers he may be purchasing, but is reportedly pursuing the North Coast Publishers Inc., a group of weeklies in Northern San Diego County, and the daily Glendale News-Press.

The Pilot, purchased by Adams Communications from Ingersoll Publications last year, has a circulation of about 23,000 in the Costa Mesa-Newport Beach area. The weekly newspapers--all called the Independent--serve Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

Pilot publisher Rosemary Churchman has resigned, but Page said other staff changes were not anticipated at this time. Page emphasized his commitment to expand the paper’s influence and become involved in the community, and added that he is now living in rented quarters in Newport Beach and expects to settle in the area.

Financing for the Pilot acquisition, which is expected to close today, came in part from a New York media investor, Elliot Stein Jr., who will serve as chairman of Page Group Publishing Inc. Stein is managing partner of a new New York investment house called Commonwealth Capital Partners, which counts Page’s company as its first investment.

Page described Commonwealth as his “partner” and said it would be involved in any additional transactions.

Stein’s other media interests--which are not part of Commonwealth--include El Vocero, which Stein described as the largest Spanish language newspaper in Puerto Rico, as well as the Los Angeles-based weekly Mundo Artistico, a trade magazine company, and four television stations.

Stein said Commonwealth had “a lot of capital” and would “do what it takes” to help Page build his newspaper group. He noted that Page was “a very imaginative publisher who’s going into a small market compared to what he’s done before, and he’s going to apply all his ideas and marketing talents to make (the Pilot) useful for its readers.”

Page said he has no plans for major changes at the Pilot but said he believed the paper had “significant opportunities” to grow, in terms of circulation, advertising and influence. He added that the paper would focus on local issues, emphasizing life style, the arts, local government and high school sports.

The Pilot’s circulation has dropped by nearly half since the late 1970s, falling to about 20,000 when Adams purchased the newspaper in June, 1988. Kirk Cheyfitz, president of the publishing division of Adams Communications, said in October that the paper had picked up about 3,000 subscribers.

Page rejected suggestions that the Pilot, which has been caught in the cross-fire of the fierce competition between The Times and The Orange County Register, would have to reorient its position in the market.

“I’ve spent my whole life as an underdog--at UPI fighting the mighty AP, at the Boston Herald when (media mogul Rupert) Murdoch first bought it, and at the Sun-Times, and we’ve made an awful lot of money,” Page said.

Page joined Murdoch in 1981 after a long career at United Press International and soon became publisher of the Boston Herald. In 1984, he moved to the Chicago paper, which was also owned at the time by Murdoch, as publisher. Page led a management buyout of the Sun-Times in 1986 but resigned as publisher last year and sold his interest after reportedly clashing with investors and other executives.