More Details Emerge About Potential Manchester Takeover of San Diego Union-Tribune
Douglas Manchester either likes the attention he’s been getting from the media lately, or he really is interested in taking over the San Diego Union-Tribune. Manchester told Voice of San Diego yesterday that if he took over the U-T, he would partner with longtime radio executive John Lynch.
“John and I are good friends and have been partners before,” Manchester said. “If we do anything in media, we’d do it together. John and I are great friends, we’ll continue to be good friends. If we do something, he’d be involved.”
The pair have worked together in media before. VoSD has the background:
Manchester had an ownership stake in Lynch’s radio company, the Broadcast Company of the Americas, before selling it to the Viejas Indian band in 2005 for $7.5 million, the Union-Tribune reported. The broadcast company owned the Mighty 1090 AM sports-talk station. In 2010, Lynch was ousted from the company he’d helped start, the newspaper said.
Lynch and Manchester were also investors in ipayOne, a discount mortgage company that went bust in 2007 as the housing bubble popped. They’ve even traveled together to Iraq on a trip to support the troops. Lynch is the father of the former NFL Pro Bowl safety of the same name.
Meanwhile, KUSI-TV owner Mike McKinnon Sr. came forward to VoSD to announce he was also interested in the paper–and had already made a preliminary bid earlier this year. He says he won’t pursue further however, until Manchester’s plans for the paper play out. Which is too bad. Because McKinnon seems to actually enjoy the paper, rather than the real estate it sits on.
