Feds Sue Tribune Publishing

What started as a marathon has turned into an obstacle course. In Thursday’s wee hours, just before dawn, Tribune Publishing was named as the “winner” in the Orange County Register bankruptcy auction. Tribune’s winning bid of $56 million in cash—topping high-end estimates of the combined value of the Register, its sister Press-Enterprise and attendant real estate—seemed to signal an end to the big question of who would next own the paper. (Politico Media)

Making good on its pre-auction warning, the Justice Department Thursday filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in Los Angeles seeking to block the acquisition. The Justice Department had indicated this week that if Tribune, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, prevailed at the auction as expected, it would intercede to prevent what it called a monopoly of the market for both advertisers and readers. (Deadline)

The Morning Media Newsfeed reports A federal bankruptcy court judge still must approve the sale and has set a hearing for Monday. The sale would string together the biggest newspapers in each of four Southern California counties with a combined population of 18 million, consolidating control over news and advertising in the region. (Chicago Sun-Times / AP)

The Justice Department argued that, if combined, the merged operation would account for 98 percent of newspaper sales in Orange County and 81 percent of English-language newspaper sales in Riverside County. The deal would allow the Tribune to increase subscription prices, raise advertising rates and invest less to maintain the quality of its newspapers, the agency said. (WSJ)

Tribune beat out two other bidders vying for Freedom, including Digital First Media, a national newspaper chain whose holdings include the Los Angeles Daily News and eight other Southern California newspapers. (LA Times)