Tribune extends reach in S. Calif.

SAN DIEGO - The publisher of the Los Angeles Times said Thursday it agreed to buy U-T San Diego for $85 million, deepening its hold in Southern California and putting the top newspapers in the state's two largest cities under common ownership.

Tribune Publishing, owner of the Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other publications, said the U-T would remain a separate newspaper. Executives were examining how operations might be consolidated, with one possibility being that the Times prints the San Diego paper.

"We're combining two of the most enduring institutions in California," said Austin Beutner, the Times' publisher and chief executive, told the newspaper. "We can take the best of what each newsroom can offer, and offer it to a broader customer base."

Douglas Manchester, a prominent San Diego developer who bought the U-T in 2011 for about $110 million, will keep the U-T's headquarters in the city's Mission Valley area.

Beutner will be publisher of both papers and chief executive of Tribune Publishing's California News Group, which will oversee operations in both markets. The U-T said Jeff Light, its president and editor, would remain at the San Diego paper.

Manchester, who insisted that employees call him "Papa Doug," used his foray into newspaper publishing to trumpet conservative political views. One of his first moves was to give the U-T a new slogan, "The World's Greatest Country & America's Finest City."

"It has been important to me to speak out positively on a local, national and international level, particularly in denouncing Christian genocide and other oppression throughout the world," Manchester said in the U-T. "As publisher, my motive was always to do what was right for our city and our country."

Manchester will receive $73 million cash and $12 million in Tribune Publishing stock, the papers said.