Ownership Changes Chain forced to shut 20 weeklies p.

By: M.L. Stein

Southern California Community Newspapers, already reeling from a forced bankruptcy, closed its 20 weeklies recently when a Rhode Island bank seized its assets in a dispute over a $6.9 million loan.
Publisher Ric Trent still retained possession of Northeast Newspapers, a group of nine Los Angeles-area weeklies, and said he planned to expand in the Los Angeles area.
Trent told E&P that his negotiations with Rhode Island Hospital Trust in Providence broke down over its insistence that he pay off the loan in eight weeks instead of the 13 weeks he had asked for. The bank agreed to accept a lower amount as payment in full.
"So, on an issue of five weeks, we had to go out of business," Trent observed. "Some of those papers had been published for over 100 years. Of course, I don't know what kind of pressure the bank may have been under from its regulators."
SCCN, whose newspapers had a free circulation of about 360,000 on Thursday and 270,000 on Sunday, employed 110 people. About 40 of them moved over to Northeast Newspapers.
Last September, SCCN declared a Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of a pending lawsuit regarding an "adults preferred" rental ad that allegedly violated the Fair Housing Act. Trent said he could not afford to fight the suit and stay in business.
The publisher said he was undaunted by the setbacks.
"Los Angeles is a viable market for weekly newspapers and we plan to move further into that market," he stated.

Freedom Newspapers Inc. has purchased Preview, a weekly entertainment tabloid in Southern California.
Preview, which was sold by South Coast Newspapers Inc. of Oceanside, Calif., has a circulation of about 87,000 in southern Orange County and about 20,000 in the Manhattan Beach/Torrance area of Los Angeles County. It is available weekly on newsstands and is delivered to Orange County homes on Thursdays and Fridays. In addition, about 9,000 copies are distributed through the Edwards Cinema theater chain.
South Coast Newspapers has retained the rights to Preview's San Diego County edition.