Heat City

The axe fell hard on the staff of the East Valley Tribune this morning as the newspaper laid off dozens of employees in preparation for Colorado publisher Randy Miller to take over later this month.

It’s unclear right now exactly how many people were cut throughout the building, but four sources familiar with today’s events said the knife went deep. The newsroom alone was reduced by more than half and the rest of the newspaper saw similar cutbacks.

Just 14 staffers will be left to run the Tribune’s news operations under the new owner, the sources said. The newsroom already underwent significant cuts in recent years and was down to fewer than 35 employees before today’s announcement.

Among those let go from the newsroom, the sources said, was the entire business desk, most of the copy desk and all but one photographer. [List posted below.]

Randy Miller

The East Valley Tribune, which for months has survived in a state of corporate limbo, finally learned its fate on Tuesday.

The Mesa newspaper will have its fourth owner in less than 15 years after a federal judge gave his blessing for the Tribune and its sister newspapers to be sold to a small Colorado publisher for a little more than $2 million.

The approval clears the way for Randy Miller, who owns Thirteenth Street Media in Boulder, Colo., to buy the newspapers from their current owner, media giant Freedom Communications. The deal is expected to be completed before the end of the month.

“We are excited to complete the legal process and work with our employees and advertisers to build solid, community-oriented newspapers,” Miller said in a prepared statement.

As part of the deal, Miller will also get the Ahwatukee Daily News in Phoenix, the Daily News-Sun in Sun City, several small specialty publications and a building in Sun City valued by the county assessor at about $2.1 million.

In the meantime, Miller will begin to take over day-to-day operations of the newspapers until the deal formally goes through, the Tribune reported on its website.

Colorado publisher Randy Miller appears poised to take over the East Valley Tribune and its sister papers as early as Wednesday after his main competition to buy the Mesa newspaper dropped out of the contest on Friday.

For the past several months, Stephen Hadland, the chief executive of the Santa Monica Media Company, said he planned to try to outbid Miller for the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper.

But Hadland told Heat City on Friday he had been unable to convince his investors to pony up enough cash to jump into a bidding war with a Miller’s Thirteenth Street Media.

“All I can say is I’m very, very disappointed,” said Hadland, who repeatedly called the sale of the Tribune and its sister newspapers “the deal of a lifetime.”

Barring any last-minute surprises, Hadland’s withdraw means that Miller has a clear path to take over the Tribune, as well as the Ahwatukee Foothills News in Phoenix and the Daily News-Sun in Sun City.

View Larger Map | Google Map with Street View shows East Valley Tribune in Mesa

A California newspaper publisher says he believes he has the means to make a better offer for the East Valley Tribune and its sister newspapers than the one announced Tuesday in federal court.

Stephen Hadland, the chief executive of the Santa Monica Media Company, would not disclose how much money he plans to offer. But he said he thinks his pitch will be more attractive than the $2.05 million being offered by Colorado newspaperman Randy Miller.

Miller’s bid was revealed Tuesday in federal court in Delaware as part of the bankruptcy process for Freedom Communications, which currently owns the newspapers. The media giant wants to sell all of its papers in the Phoenix metro area to help pay off part of its $1 billion debt.

Under the rules of bankruptcy, Freedom must put the newspapers up for public auction and let a judge determine which bid is best. Hadland said he expects to put up enough cash from investors in the next three weeks to make a serious challenge to Miller’s bid.

“I feel very confident,” Hadland said. “I’ve had six months to work on this and I have a half dozen investors and financers lined up.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning East Valley Tribune and its two sister newspapers would be sold to a Colorado businessman for a little more than $2 million under a deal announced today in federal court.

The current owner of the papers, Freedom Communications in Irvine, Calif., has been talking publicly since September about selling the Mesa-based Tribune along with the Ahwatukee Foothills News in Phoenix and the Daily News-Sun in Sun City.

But the media giant has struggled to put together a deal that would bring in enough cash to help begin to pay off roughly $1 billion in debt the company had compiled nationwide, which landed the chain in bankruptcy last year.

Today, after months of negotiations and false starts, Freedom finally announced the details of a plan to sell the three newspapers to Colorado publisher Randy Miller, who also owns newspapers in Tucson and Telluride, Colo. In doing so, the company also opened the door for anyone else to try to outbid Miller as part of a public auction process required by the bankruptcy court.

Randy Miller

The Colorado man who wants to buy the East Valley Tribune newspaper in Mesa has expanded his offer to include its two local sister papers.

The Ahwatukee Foothills News in Phoenix and the Daily News-Sun in Sun City are now part of newspaperman Randy Miller’s offer to buy the Pulitzer Prize-winning Tribune from its bankrupt parent company, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.

Representatives from the parent, Freedom Communications, told employees about the larger deal this morning during simultaneous staff meetings at the papers, the sources said.

Chris Coppola

Though the fate of the struggling East Valley Tribune remains uncertain, one thing became clear on Thursday: Any future the Mesa newspaper has will be without its head editor, Chris Coppola.

The longtime Tribune newsman announced he will step down Jan. 8 to take a job as a suburban editor at the Arizona Republic.

The New Year’s Eve announcement marked the end of an especially turbulent year for the newspaper, one in which it laid off half its staff, brought home a Pulitzer Prize and narrowly staved off closure.

Christmas Eve came and went, but the potential deal to save the East Valley Tribune did not materialize as expected.

Earlier this month, a spokesman for the Mesa newspaper’s parent, Freedom Communications, said Dec. 24 would likely be the day the company would tell a federal bankruptcy court about the deal it hopes to strike with a Colorado businessman wanting to buy the Tribune.

But late Thursday, after nothing had been filed with the court, company spokeswoman Maya Pogoda said attorneys “have not finalized the agreement” with hopeful buyer Randy Miller.

Randy Miller

When Colorado businessman Randy Miller traveled to Mesa last week, he acted very much like the man who would soon be in charge of the Pulitzer Prize-winning East Valley Tribune.

He toured its facilities. He introduced himself to the staff. He even handed out job applications across the building, telling employees to reapply for positions under his Thirteenth Street Media company, which hopes to take over the paper early next year.

But Miller’s plans appear to be presumptuous. The reality is that Miller has a long way to go – and possibly competition to fight off – before he can expect to be called “boss” at the newspaper that was slated to be shut down before he offered to buy it last month.

And in fact, there is still a chance Miller won’t buy the East Valley Tribune at all – because in the end, the decision will be up to someone else entirely.

Randy Miller

Even though no deal has been formalized to save the Pulitzer Prize-winning East Valley Tribune, a potential buyer is already telling its employees to reapply for their jobs.

Staffers of the Mesa newspaper received an email on Friday containing a job application [PDF] for Thirteenth Street Media, the Colorado company reportedly hoping to buy the ailing publication. The company has said it would keep “a significant” number of employees – but not all of them – if it buys the paper.

The email also told employees that Thirteenth Street Media’s owner, Randy Miller, would be in town this week to decide which staffers to keep if the deal goes through.

While those revelations may have been surprising enough for employees since the deal with Miller is nowhere near official, the real shockers came in the job application itself.