Feds sue to block Tribune purchase of Calif. papers

The U.S. Department of Justice yesterday filed a lawsuit designed to block Tribune Publishing's $56 million purchase of California newspapers the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise.

“If this acquisition is allowed to proceed, newspaper competition will be eliminated and readers and advertisers in Orange and Riverside counties will suffer,” Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division said in a statement.

The DOJ referred to Tribune's ownership of the Los Angeles Times.

Tribune is seeking to buy the papers' parent company, Freedom Communications, out of bankruptcy.

Read more from the Los Angeles Times.