Singleton

A day after Dean Singleton announced he was stepping down as MediaNews Group CEO, the Wall Street Journal reports that the hedge fund that apparently took control of MNG, Alden Global Capital, is looking to merge it with Freedom Communications, owner of the Orange County Register.

Such a deal would bring together the Register with MediaNews Group’s nine Southern California newspapers, led by the Los Angeles Daily News.

According to WSJ:

The person familiar with the matter said Alden wants to roll at least some of its various newspaper holdings into a single company.

Meanwhile, Singleton said in interviews today that he is not retiring and will remain as “executive chairman” and continue in a strategic and deal-making role for MNG. However, Singleton’s hand-picked successor, Jody Lodovic, left in the wake of Tuesday’s shake-up.

In an interview with the Denver Business Journal, Singleton declined to say how much of a stake Alden has in MNG. “Alden is a substantial shareholder,” Singleton said. “The changes that we’ve made aligns board membership with share holdings.” Alden apparently has a large enough stake that it is able to put its own people on MNG’s board and pick an interim president who will run the company until a new CEO is found.