2100 Trust
On July 25, 2012, The Orange County Register and six other papers were purchased by 2100 Trust LLC.[59] The papers continued to operate under the Freedom Communications name.[60] The principal company owner was Aaron Kushner, a former greeting-card executive with no prior media experience.[60] Kushner paid $50 million for the assets and agreed to assume the pension liabilities. He soon increased staff, added new sections at the Orange County Register and began a new daily, the Long Beach Register.[61]
In November 2012, Freedom sold the Colorado Springs Gazette to Clarity Media, a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation.[62] In April 2013, Freedom sold the Yuma Sun and the Porterville Recorder to Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers.[63][64] In June 2013, Freedom sold the Appeal-Democrat to the Vista, California subsidiary of Horizon Publications.[65][66]
In October 2013, the former owners of Freedom Communications filed a lawsuit against Aaron Kushner demanding his company pay more than $17 million remaining on the sale. Kushner claimed that the prior owners had given him an inaccurate valuation of the assets and he faced $62.3 million in unexpected financial liabilities as a result.[60]
In November 2013, Freedom purchased the Riverside Press-Enterprise from A.H. Belo Corporation for $27 million.[67][68] In January 2014, the company laid off 71 workers in Riverside and Santa Ana.[69] In March 2014, Freedom sold the Daily Press and the Desert Dispatch to New Media Investment Group.[70] In December 2014, the Long Beach Register closed.[71]
On November 1, 2015, Freedom Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in its history.[72] In January 2016, Freedom closed several of its weekly papers in Orange County.[73] On March 21, 2016, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of Freedom Communications and its two major newspapers, the Orange County Register and the Riverside Press-Enterprise, to Digital First Media, the parent of the Los Angeles News Group, which operated eleven daily newspapers in Southern California. After the sale, the subsidiary was renamed to Southern California News Group.[74][75]
