Chicago Sun-Times Could Shut Down If Ex-Alderman's Bid Sputters, Tronc Bid Blocked

CHICAGO, IL — The parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times have apparently drawn a line in the sand concerning its potential sale. The newspaper could be shut down if a bid from an investment group led by a former Chicago alderman isn't finalized next week and the US Department of Justice tries to stop a deal with tronc, the owners of the Chicago Tribune, from going through, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

Investment banker Brad Bulkley, who's negotiating the sale of Wrapports, which owns the Sun-Times and the alt-weekly Chicago Reader, told Crain's that the company is "moving on" if the group headed by Edwin Eisendrath can't finalize their $15 million proposal by Monday. If that deal falls through, Wrapports will try to work out a deal with tronc, the media company's original suitor whose purchase bid led to Eisendrath forming his group, the report added. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago— or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

But sources involved with the negotiations told Crain's Wrapports is willing to shutter the Sun-Times if the Justice Department tries to block the sale to tronc in court. Early indications pointed to the federal department's antitrust division derailing the deal between Wrapports and tronc after it was announced in May, the report stated.

RELATED: Tronc, Owner Of Chicago Tribune, To Buy Chicago Sun-Times

At least one investor in Eisendrath's group — which also includes the Chicago Federation of Labor and several of its union members — thinks all the details will be ironed out in time. Restructuring consultant Bill Brandt said that the more than $11 million pledged by the Monday deadline will be in hand by then, the report added.

"This is a great opportunity for the Sun-Times, and Chicago is a big enough city to have two papers," Brandt told Crain's.

Not a fan of the paper he's competiting with for ownership of the Sun-Times, Brandt said the Tribune should be used to line bird cages and that he saw owning the Sun-Times to be a "civic duty."

"Chicago needs a second paper," he told Crain's.

RELATED: Ex-Alderman Leads Union Group Trying To Buy Chicago Sun-Times

Keeping the distinctive journalistic voices of the two publications has been a theme since May when the possibility of the Tribune and the Sun-Times being under the same ownership umbrella was presented. Officials at tronc, which also owns the Los Angeles Times and the Baltimore Sun, have said they are committed to maintaining independent newsrooms and identities between the two papers.

"Without a free press, America is doomed," Brandt told Crain's. "In the current environment, the free press has never been more important."

More via Crain's Chicago Business

Photo by G-Jun Yam | Associated Press

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