Nope, not to Sam Zell, Ron Burkle or Dean Singleton. Only time will tell if this is better for the paper and for San Diego. The buyer of the Union-Tribune is the Beverly Hills private equity firm Platinum Equity, one of whose principals is David H. Black, "whose company Black Press owns dozens of community newspapers, mostly in western Canada, and has expanded its U.S. presence with acquisitions of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2000 and the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal in 2006," says the U-T story. The San Diego Union had been published by the Copley family of La Jolla since 1928; it combined with the Evening Tribune in 1992.

LA Biz Observed: The Pellicano connection