SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The San Diego Union-Tribune, the county's sole daily paper now owes more than $560,000 in unpaid rent and refuses to hand over the keys to its downtown headquarters, according to new eviction papers filed in California state court.
The owner of the 6th and B Street high-rise says the paper suddenly stopped making its monthly rent payments in September, just over a month after billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong sold the San Diego daily paper to New York-based Alden Global Capital and its subsidiary MediaNews Group in July 2023.
Alden and its MediaNews Group run hundreds of community newspapers throughout the country and according to numerous media reports, had a long-running practice of buying newspapers and other publications and slashing staff to maximize profits.
At the time of the sale, Soon-Shiong said his reasoning to sell was to focus on his other newspaper venture, the Los Angeles Times.
Just weeks after Alden Capital assumed control of the paper, its landlord, 600 B Street Owner LLC, said the paper made its August rent payment of $105,281 but they have not received another payment since.
CBS 8 first reported on eviction papers that the building owner filed on December 8, 2023.
However, newly filed court documents claim the paper still hasn't paid rent and refuses to hand over the keys to the landlord.
"[The Union-Tribune] is already enjoying its fifth month occupying two floors of valuable office space, rent-free," reads a January 17 court document obtained by CBS 8. "The amount past due and owing by [the UT} already totals $564,765."
Attorneys for the landlord are now asking that a state judge step in and expedite the eviction process and force the paper to give them back their property and vacate the building - a building which continues to have the 'San Diego Union-Tribune- as its masthead.
Meanwhile, attorneys for San Diego's paper of record say that the landlord is jumping the gun and despite the paper not having paid the rent are still the legal tenants of the building.
The back-and-forth underscores the ever-transforming landscape for newspapers across the country, including the Union-Tribune and its former sister-paper, the Los Angeles Times.
A January 18 article in the New York Times, highlighted those issues in its coverage of three billionaires who purchased newspapers across the country in hopes of increasing revenue amid dwindling readership. Among the owners the Times mentioned was the former San Diego Union-Tribune owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong.
According to the Times, the paper was reportedly on track to lose between $30 and $40 million in 2023. Representatives from the LA Times admitted that the company faced “a significant gap between revenue and expenses."
As for what that means for the future of the San Diego Union-Tribune, the paper declined to respond to requests for comment from CBS 8.
This article will be updated if or when the paper issues a statement.
