Ownership
Founder R.C. Hoiles gained a one-third interest in his first newspaper (The Alliance Review in Ohio) sometime in the 1910s. He and his brother Frank bought many more local newspapers over the next several decades. In 1935 he moved his base of operations to Santa Ana, California, and in 1950 he incorporated his syndicate as Freedom Newspapers, Inc. He operated the company entirely as a family-owned business until 2004, when private-equity firms Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners acquired a 40 percent share in Freedom for about $460 million. As part of this transaction, Freedom had acquired substantial debt.
On August 31, 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported that Freedom Communications was close to announcing a Chapter 11 reorganization. On September 1, 2009, they did, in fact, do so. The company left bankruptcy on April 30, 2010, under the ownership of investment firms Alden Global Capital, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Luxor Capital Group. Lenders to the company also retained a stake in Freedom.
The company announced on November 2, 2011 that it would sell its entire television division to Sinclair Broadcast Group in a move to eliminate the company's debt. The sale was completed on April 2, 2012.
Freedom began selling the majority of its newspaper portfolio in 2012. Four papers in the Midwest were sold to Ohio Community Media, an affiliate of the private equity firm Versa Capital Management, in May. The Clovis News Journal and other newspapers in New Mexico were sold to Stevenson Newspapers. Freedom papers in Texas were sold to AIM Media Texas. Its Florida and North Carolina papers were sold to Halifax Media Group.
On June 11, 2012, Freedom Communications Holdings, Inc. announced an agreement to be acquired by 2100 Trust, LLC in a merger with a subsidiary of 2100 Trust. 2100 Trust, led by entrepreneur Aaron Kushner, acquired Freedom's dailies, their associated non-daily publications and digital properties. On July 25, the acquisition of Freedom Communications by 2100 Trust, LLC was officially completed. The company continued to operate under the name Freedom Communications.
Freedom closed the sale of The Gazette (Colorado Springs) to Clarity Media, a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation, on November 30, 2012.
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