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The San Diego Union-Tribune

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U-T San Diego
File:San Diego Union-Tribune August 17 2010.png
August 17, 2010 front page of
The San Diego Union-Tribune
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)MLIM Holdings
EditorJeff Light (Editor, Vice President), Mike Hodges (President & COO)[1]
Founded1868 (as The San Diego Union)
Headquarters350 Camino de la Reina
San Diego, California, U.S.
Circulation296,331 Daily
378,696 Sunday[2]
WebsiteUTSanDiego.com

U-T San Diego is a daily newspaper published in San Diego. It was renamed in 2012 from The San Diego Union-Tribune, a 1992 merger between San Diego Union and San Diego Evening Tribune. The San Diego Sun merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939. In 2012, the rival North County Times newspaper was merged into U-T San Diego.

History

Predecessors

The predecessor newspapers of the Union-Tribune were:[3]

  • San Diego Sun, founded 1861 and merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939.
  • San Diego Union, founded October 10, 1868.
  • San Diego Evening Tribune, founded December 2, 1895.

In addition, the San Diego Union purchased the San Diego Daily Bee in 1888, and a for a brief time the combined paper was named the San Diego Union and Daily Bee.[4]

Ownership

Both the Union and the Tribune were acquired by Copley Press in 1928[5] and were merged on February 2, 1992. The merged newspaper was sold to the private investment group Platinum Equity of Beverly Hills on March 18, 2009.[6]

In November 2011, Platinum Equity sold the paper to MLIM Holdings, a company led by Doug Manchester, a San Diego real estate investor and "an outspoken supporter of conservative causes." Manchester owns several hotels in the San Diego area, including the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina and the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel. The purchase price was reportedly in excess of $110 million.[7]

On January 3, 2012, the paper announced that it will now use the name U-T San Diego "on all of our media products and communications"; the paper's website (formerly SignOnSanDiego.com) will now use the name UTSanDiego.com. The official announcement explained the change as being intended to "unify our print and digital products under a single brand with a clear and consistent expectation of quality."[8][9][10]

U-T San Diego bought the North County Times in 2012.[11] On October 15, 2012, the North County Times ceased publication and became the U-T North County Times, which is an edition of the U-T with some North County-specific content.[12]

Pulitzer Prizes

  • 1979, Breaking News Reporting: San Diego Evening Tribune for its coverage of the PSA Flight 182 jetliner collision with a small plane over North Park[13]
  • 1987, Editorial Writing: San Diego Evening Tribune editorial writer Jonathan Freedman for his editorials urging passage of the first major immigration reform act in 34 years[14]
  • 2006, National Reporting: The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service (with notable work by Marcus Stern and Jerry Kammer), for their disclosure of bribe-taking that sent former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to prison "in disgrace".[15][16] They also received the George Polk Award[17] for these stories.
  • 2009, Editorial Cartooning: Steve Breen "for his agile use of a classic style to produce wide ranging cartoons that engage readers with power, clarity and humor."

Design

On August 17, 2010, the Union-Tribune changed its design to improve "clarity, legibility, and ease of use". Changes include being printed on thinner, 100 percent recycled paper, moving the comics to the back of the business section, and abbreviating the title "The San Diego Union-Tribune" on the front page to "U-T San Diego".[18]

Editorial views

Copleys and Platinum Equity

Under the Copleys' ownership the paper had a reliably conservative editorial position, endorsing almost exclusively Republicans for elective office, and sometimes refusing to interview or cover Democratic candidates. Under Platinum Equity the paper's editorial position "skewed closer to the middle" and showcased multiple viewpoints.[19]

Manchester and Lynch

When Manchester and business partner John Lynch took ownership in 2011, they were open about their desire to use the newspaper to "promote their agenda of downtown development and politically conservative causes",[20] with Lynch stating on KPBS radio that he and Manchester "wanted to be cheerleaders for all that is good in San Diego."[21] Lynch expanded on this position in 2012, saying “We make no apologies. We are doing what a newspaper ought to do, which is to take positions. We are very consistent — pro-conservative, pro-business, pro-military — and we are trying to make a newspaper that gets people excited about this city and its future.”[22]

This open promotion of certain viewpoints has resulted in criticism from journalism professors and other newspaper editors, who worry that negative news about topics such as the military and business might not be covered.[23] Dean Nelson, director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University, argued, "Now if you're saying we're going to be the cheerleaders of the military, why would you report on this guy that's taking bribes?... Where's the cheerleading there?" a reference to the Union-Tribune's Pulitzer Prize winning coverage of the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal.[24] A New York Times writer added, "There is a growing worry that the falling value and failing business models of many American newspapers could lead to a situation where moneyed interests buy papers and use them to prosecute a political and commercial agenda. That future appears to have arrived in San Diego."[22]

Lynch says, "We totally respect the journalistic integrity of our paper and there is a clear line of demarcation between our editorials and our news. Our editor, Jeff Light, calls the shots." However, in November 2011 Lynch told the sports editor that the sports pages should advocate for a new football stadium; when a longtime sportswriter wrote skeptically about the idea, he was fired.[22]

Downtown redevelopment

In January 2012, two months after Manchester bought the U-T, the paper featured a front -page proposal for downtown redevelopment, to include a downtown football stadium and an expansion of the San Diego Convention Center.[25] Both properties are adjacent to hotels that Manchester owns.[26]

In September 2012, Investigative Newsource reporter Brooke Williams obtained articles that claimed Lynch "threatened" Port Commissioner Scott Peters, who was running for Congress, "with a newspaper campaign to dismantle the Unified Port of San Diego." In e-mails obtained by Williams, Lynch was quoted as indicating that if the Dole Food Company obtained a long term contract, that the Port's independence governance would be questioned in editorial coverage. Williams said the effort showed "the extent to which the newspaper's new owners will go to push their vision for a football stadium on the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal,"[27]

Endorsements and polling

During the 2012 mayoral election the owners of the U-T donated to Republican City Council Member Carl DeMaio's campaign,[28] and the newspaper ran several prominent editorials favoring DeMaio. Those endorsements were wrapped around the front section of the newspaper on a separate page, "as though they were even more important" than the front page.[29]

In October 2012, a poll was taken by the U-T asking respondents to choose between DeMaio and Democratic Congressman Bob Filner in the mayoral election to be held in November. A rival news outlet noted that "Employees of a newspaper, television / radio station, marketing / public opinion research company or the city of San Diego—or who live with someone employed in one of those fields" were excluded from the poll results, which showed the Republican leading the Democrat, 46% to 36%. Reporter Kelly Davis of SDCityBeat.com wrote: "Common sense dictates that those votes [by city employees or those living with them] would swing in Filner's favor due to DeMaio's long-running feud with city-employee unions." But U-T assignment editor Michael Smolens replied that "city employees were excluded to avoid political entanglements" in other parts of the ballot as well as in the mayor's race.[30][31]

Publishers

  • W. Jeff Gatewood, founder, October 10, 1868
  • Edward "Ned" Wilkerson Bushyhead, 1868–1873 with various partners. Bushyhead (1832–1907) was a miner, publisher and lawman who was born in Tennessee. Part Cherokee, he was the son of a Baptist preacher, whom he accompanied from Georgia to Indian Territory on the Trail of Tears at the age of seven. Having moved to San Diego, he became the "silent" publisher of the San Diego Union. In 1873, he sold the newspaper. In 1882, he was elected sheriff of San Diego County.
  • Douglas Gunn, 1871–1886. Gunn (August 31, 1841 – November 26, 1891) was a scholar, publisher, pioneer and Republican politician from California.
  • John D. Spreckels, 1890–1926. The son of German-American industrialist Claus Spreckels, he founded a transportation and real estate empire in San Diego.
  • Col. Ira C. Copley, 1928–1947
  • James S. Copley, 1947–1973. He was a journalist and newspaper publisher. He published the San Diego Union, San Diego Union-Tribune and San Diego Evening Tribune from 1947 until his death in 1973.
  • Helen K. Copley, 1973–2001
  • David C. Copley, 2001–2009
  • Edward R. Moss, May 2009 – December 2011[32]
  • Doug Manchester, 2011–[33][34]

Notable people

References

  1. ^ "Contact Us". Union-Tribune. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
  2. ^ "2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation" (PDF). BurrellesLuce. March 31, 2007. Retrieved May 28, 2007. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ "Guide to the San Diego Union-Tribune Photograph Collection", Online Archive of California
  4. ^ Part Five: Chapter III: LATER JOURNALISM AND LITERATURE | San Diego History Center. Sandiegohistory.org.
  5. ^ "The Copley legacy", The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 5, 2009.
  6. ^ Kupper, Thomas. "Union-Tribune sold to Platinum Equity." The San Diego Union-Tribune, March 18, 2009.
  7. ^ "San Diego Union-Tribune Sold to Hotelier for More Than $100 Million", The New York Times, November 17, 2011.
  8. ^ "To Our Readers", UTSanDiego.com, January 3, 2012.
  9. ^ Dan Walters, "San Diego Union-Tribune becomes 'U-T San Diego'", Sacramento Bee, January 3, 2012.
  10. ^ Jim Romenesko, "San Diego Union-Tribune becomes U-T San Diego", JimRomanesko.com, January 3, 2012.
  11. ^ U-T San Diego to buy North County Times, Californian. Nctimes.com (September 11, 2012).
  12. ^ U-T Combines with North County Times | NBC 7 San Diego
  13. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes for 1979[dead link]
  14. ^ The Pulitzer Prizes for 1987[dead link]
  15. ^ McDonald, Jeff. "U-T, Copley News win Pulitzer Prize", The San Diego Union-Tribune, April 18, 2006.
  16. ^ 2006 Pulitzer Prize National Reporting[dead link]
  17. ^ "George Polk Awards for Journalism press release". Long Island University. Retrieved November 15, 2006.
  18. ^ Apple, Charles (August 17, 2010). "San Diego Union-Tribune launches redesign". Apple.copydesk.org. Retrieved October 31, 2010.
  19. ^ Raftery, Miriam (November 20, 2011). "Media Watchdog: Union Tribune sale raises media ethics concerns". East County Magazine. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  20. ^ Becket Adams, "San Diego Media Baron Expands Business to Promote Conservatism," The Blaze, October 22, 2012
  21. ^ Sharma, Anita, "Developer Doug Manchester Buys Union-Tribune", KPBS radio, November 17, 2011
  22. ^ a b c Carr, David (June 10, 2012). "Newspaper as Business Pulpit". New York Times. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  23. ^ Erik Anderson, Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico and City News Service, "It’s Official: U-T San Diego Is Buying North County Times", KPBS-TV, September 11, 2012
  24. ^ Davis, Rob, "Manchester Consolidates Power with Second Newspaper Buy", Voice of San Diego, September 11, 2012
  25. ^ "Editorial: Think big — New vision needed for downtown waterfront". San Diego Union-Tribune. January 22, 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  26. ^ "Papa Doug Manchester". Doug Manchester's website. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  27. ^ "Port Commissioner: " 'The UT Is Coming After Us,' " Investigative Newsource, September 27, 2012
  28. ^ Scott Lewis, "The Head-Spinning Polls in the Mayor's Race," Voice of San Diego, October 22, 2012
  29. ^ Lewis, Scott (September 11, 2012). "The Two Faces of Papa Doug". Voice of San Diego. Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  30. ^ Kelly Davis, "Why Were City Employees Excluded From the U-T Mayoral Poll?" San Diego CityBeat, October 25, 2012
  31. ^ [1] Poll results
  32. ^ "Doing More With Moss". Voice of San Diego. voiceofsandiego.org. October 30, 2009. Retrieved November 8, 2009. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  33. ^ "Union-Tribune returns to local hands". San Diego Union-Tribune. December 6, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
  34. ^ "San Diego developer purchases city's newspaper". Associated Press in Bloomberg Businessweek. December 6, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
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