Glendale Paper, 2 Others Sold to Page Group

The Glendale News Press and its two sister publications, the Burbank Leader and the Foothill Leader, were acquired this week by an investment group headed by Robert E. Page, the former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The purchase of the Glendale, Burbank and Foothill newspapers brings to eight the number of Southern California papers owned by Page Group Publishing.

Page Group bought the Glendale, Burbank and Foothill newspapers for an undisclosed sum from the Goodson Newspaper Group.

“I decided early in 1989 that I wanted to live in California and concentrated all of my energies in looking for newspapers in the Southern California area,” Page said.

Page’s company announced last week that it had purchased the Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa and the Independent, which has editions serving Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach and Corona del Mar.

“If we edit these papers smartly and aggressively, there is an opportunity for a good business,” Page said. “We need to be the unquestioned source of local news.”

Page said he plans to improve the newspapers by changing some of the editorial content and graphics but no wholesale personnel changes are planned. He said he remains interested in acquiring other local papers in Southern California.

Judee Kendall, named publisher of the Glendale News Press about eight months ago, said she was looking forward to working with Page. She said the three newspapers she manages have a combined circulation of about 103,000 a week and employ about 130.

Page, 54, began his newspaper career as a reporter for United Press International. He rose through the ranks to serve as its vice president and general manager before he resigned in the mid-1980s.

After leaving UPI, he served as president and publisher of the Boston Herald and the Chicago Sun-Times. When Sun-Times owner Rupert Murdoch bought a Chicago television station and was required by the federal government to sell the newspaper, Page and a group of Sun-Times executives purchased it.

Last year, Page sold his interest in the Sun-Times and joined forces with New York investment banker Elliott Stein Jr. to begin acquiring smaller newspapers. Stein, a managing director of Commonwealth Capital Partners, serves as chairman of Page Group Publishing.

Page said Stein is an experienced newspaper executive who owns El Vocero, the largest Spanish-language newspaper in Puerto Rico. Stein also has an ownership interest in Mundo Artistico, a weekly Spanish-language arts and entertainment newspaper in Los Angeles.