Tribune, La Opinion to Dissolve Partnership

The founding family of the nation’s largest Spanish-language daily newspaper, La Opinion, has hired UBS Investment Bank to find an investor to buy back the 50% stake in the paper owned by Tribune Co.

The buyout would end a partnership between Tribune, which also owns the Los Angeles Times, and the Lozano family, which founded La Opinion in 1926. La Opinion is published in Los Angeles and has a circulation of 125,862.

Tribune, based in Chicago, inherited the 50% stake in La Opinion in 2000 when it purchased Times Mirror Co.

The Lozano family has “expressed a desire to operate La Opinion as an independent newspaper once again. We understand and are willing to cooperate in making that happen,” Jack Fuller, president of Tribune Publishing, said in a statement.

La Opinion sold half of the paper to Times Mirror in 1990.

Tribune also owns Newsday in New York and the Chicago Tribune, both of which have launched Spanish-language daily tabloids called Hoy.

Monica Lozano, president of La Opinion, said her company, Lozano Enterprises, had been in talks with Tribune about launching a national Spanish-language newspaper chain.

“They’ve determined that it is in the best interest of Tribune to follow the Hoy strategy,” Lozano said. “And that’s what’s at the heart of the dissolution.”

A Tribune spokesman declined to say whether the firm would publish Hoy in L.A..

“We want to serve the Spanish-speaking population in our markets in the best way we can,” Gary Weitman said. “And we’re exploring the best way of doing that.”

Tribune shares rose 75 cents to $48 on the New York Stock Exchange.