Chicago-based investment group purchases Sun-Times Media

[Geee]

Chicago Sun-Times:


A local investment group is acquiring the media company that includes the Chicago Sun-Times, taking over from owners who purchased it out of bankruptcy under the direction of the late James Tyree.

The buyers include Michael Ferro Jr., chairman of Merrick Ventures LLC, a private equity firm that deals with technology companies. Ferro, who will serve as chairman, is bringing in media executive Timothy Knight to run the company as chief executive and as an investor.

Knight is a former publisher of Newsday, the newspaper that serves Long Island. Jeremy Halbreich, who was part of the Sun-Times investment group and was the company’s chairman and chief executive, is stepping down.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but a source said the company sold for more than $20 million. Principals in the deal confirmed other points of the transaction Wednesday and announced the new lineup of investors.

They include prominent investment bankers John Canning Jr., chairman of Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, and Michael Sacks, chief executive of Grosvenor Capital Management LP. Another member is William “Beau” Wrigley Jr., whose family formerly ran the Wrigley gum and candy company.

Knight, 46, said the new team blends experience with traditional media and a commitment to technology. The goal, he said, is to apply newspaper content to new platforms, and to craft ways to deliver an audience to advertisers.

“This isn’t a newspaper acquisition. This is the creation of a technologically-enabled content company,” Knight said. “The platform, the brands that the Sun-Times has across Chicagoland are outstanding and unmatched.”

Documents for the sale were signed Wednesday, and it is expected to close in a couple of days.

Knight said that while the printed paper will remain important “for the foreseeable future,” he will concentrate on using technology to connect readers to the local content, especially in the company’s network of suburban publications.

Ferro is a well-known apostle of the power of technology. He is best known for founding a business software company, Click Commerce Inc., and selling it in 2006 for $292 million.

He has assembled a partnership notable for its deep pockets and its connections to every corner of Chicago business. Among the investors, although not members of the board that will oversee Sun-Times properties, are: Joe Mansueto, chairman of Morningstar Inc.; Miles White, chairman of Abbott Laboratories; mutual fund manager David Herro; and Bruce Rauner, principal of the private equity firm GTCR LLC.

[Geee]

NCTexan Righteousmomma. Thought you would find the list of investors interesting. Besides the Chicago paper this group also owns a lot of local papers and have made it their business to turn some of the conservative county publications around to their way of thinking. Seems as though some of the failed Tribune investors are also in this group

[SrWoodchuck]

Magnificent Geee!

 

I wonder about the political connections they are bringing to the table......think they're conservatively oriented or progressive? /rhetorical question

[Geee]

Well, here's a rhetorical answer to your rhetorical question SrWoodchuck!

 

____________________________________________________________________________

 

Rahm Emanuel: Chicago Mayor Has Financial Ties to Chicago Newspaper Owners

 

 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel sure will have a ton of buddies in one key local media outlet, because virtually every one of the Sun-Times’ new owners has been a major contributor, business partner or civic ally of his.

 

For instance, at least eight of the 12 board members of the new company, Wrapports LLC, have donated to Mr. Emanuel’s campaign fund in the past year, collectively plunking down $241,000 that I found in a quick survey of Board of Elections disclosures.

 

Included: $25,000 from the Sun-Times’ new chairman, Michael Ferro Jr., and $105,000 from Mr. Emanuel’s frequent visitor at City Hall, Grosvenor Capital Management L.P. chief Michael Sacks.

 

Then there’s the at least $20,000 that new S-T owners gave in recent months to New Chicago, the political action committee that Mr. Emanuel uses to help elect political allies. And the more considerable $350,000 that the owners and their companies collectively gave to Stand for Children, a Springfield lobbying group that helped pave the way for recent public school reform legislation that the mayor badly wanted.

 

There’s more.

 

Read the full piece here.

 

http://bigjournalism.com/pjsalvatore/2011/12/22/rahm-emanuel-chicago-mayor-has-financial-ties-to-chicago-newspaper-owners/

[SrWoodchuck]

Thanks, Geee! Is there an "I'm gagging" emoticon?