Glendale News Press, Two Sister Papers Sold

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.

Announcing the purchase in person to employees, Page said Wednesday that he intends to restore the newspaper group’s pre-eminence as the voice of Glendale, Burbank and the foothill communities of La Canada Flintridge and Sunland-Tujunga.

With the purchase of the papers from the Goodson Publishing Group, the Page Publishing Group now owns eight newspapers in Southern California. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Last week Page announced the purchase of the Orange Coast Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa and the four Independent newspapers of Newport Beach.

“These publications strike me as a wonderful opportunity to enter this exciting newspaper market,” Page said. “If we edit these papers smartly and aggressively, there is an opportunity for a good business. We need to be the unquestioned source of local news.”

In the Glendale News Press, Page takes on a waning institution that is deeply rooted in the cultural and political identity of its community, tracing its origin to the weekly Glendale News, founded in 1905, the year before Glendale’s incorporation.

But the paper has seen a decade of decline and turmoil as the city changed. While Glendale was growing from a small conservative town to an urban center, the News Press was steadily losing paid circulation. The newspaper hit a peak of 24,123 in 1974 but has dropped to about 8,000 this year, along with unpaid circulation of about 35,000.

The newspaper group’s Burbank publication has also struggled. The company retired the 80-year-old Burbank Review, whose paid circulation had also dropped to less than 8,000 in spite of being the only daily newspaper based in a city of 85,000.

In its place, Ingersoll Publications created the twice-weekly Burbank Leader, delivered free to 33,000 households. It also created the companion Foothill Leader, with a free circulation of about 35,000, for the communities of La Canada Flintridge and Sunland-Tujunga.

In spite of the vigorous competition, the News Press still is regarded as the newspaper of Glendale’s social establishment.

“I think the News Press still is entrenched in our hearts,” said Shirley Seeley, executive director of the influential Glendale Symphony Orchestra. “We’ve got a city where you can . . . call your mayor or chief of police. I think they’re a lot more tightly knit than any other newspaper for the Glendale city family.”

In announcing his purchase of the News Press and Leader group, Page stressed his intention to nurture the newspapers’ role as the inside observer of the communities. Page, who lives in Orange County, pledged to end the period of absentee ownership of the papers and to doggedly pursue their local orientation.

Page said he plans to improve the newspapers by changing some of the editorial content and graphics, but no wholesale personnel changes are planned.

Although they were not clear on what changes were planned by Page, the News Press and Leader staffs appeared to be optimistic. One News Press reporter said he was pleased when an editor from the Page organization appeared in the newsroom Thursday to observe the operation.

“It looks like we’re going to have a little more supervision and a little more direction than we had in the past, which is always a good thing,” the reporter said.

“I’m excited about it,” said a Burbank Leader reporter who was called to the News Press Wednesday to meet Page. “I liked the man.”

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 Elliot Stein Jr. to acquire smaller newspapers in Southern California. Stein, a managing director of Commonwealth Capital Partners, serves as chairman of Page Group Publishing.

Page has relocated to Newport Beach. He said will divide his time between Costa Mesa and Glendale.

Times staff writer Phil Sneiderman contributed to this story.