By Maya Trent · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, March 2013
In mid-March 2013, FishbowlLA tracked San Diego Free Press columnist Doug Porter’s skeptical reaction to the swirling rumors that the Koch brothers — possibly in partnership with San Diego U-T owner Doug Manchester — might buy the Tribune Company’s newspapers, including the LA Times.
Then
The early-2013 Koch-Tribune rumors were one of the most-charged LA-media-ownership stories of the period. Reporting that Charles and David Koch were interested in acquiring the Tribune papers had triggered substantial alarm in LA Times newsrooms.
Doug Manchester had bought the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2011 and reoriented it toward a more conservative editorial posture. Doug Porter at the San Diego Free Press brought substantive skepticism to the rumors.
Now
The Koch brothers did not acquire the Tribune newspapers. The LA Times was acquired by Patrick Soon-Shiong in 2018 — substantially better-received in the newsroom than the Koch scenario the 2013 rumors had threatened.
Doug Manchester sold the San Diego Union-Tribune to Tribune Publishing in 2015. The San Diego Free Press operated through the late 2010s before winding down.
The 2013 piece reads now as a small documented moment of LA-media-ownership anxiety — captured during a buyout-rumor cycle that, as Porter’s skepticism correctly anticipated, did not produce the worst-case Koch outcome.
Original report archived on the Wayback Machine.