"For the past couple of years," said a Los Angeles Daily News staffer, "we have never known when we left at night whether the paper would be open the next day when we showed up at the office." The fear was justified: the ailing News (circ. 188,453) was losing between $75,000 and $80,000 a month. News Publisher Robert Smith thought he had found a way out of his trouble when erratic Coos Bay (Ore.) Times Publisher Sheldon F. Sackett put down a $20,000 deposit to buy the News and signed a contract to pay $1,525,000 for it. But Smith was forced...
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