Wrapports LLC, the collection of high-flying investors who own the Sun-Times and Sun-Times Media, have added the Reader to their stable, buying this 41-year-old weekly–which the Wrapports news release chooses to call “iconic”—for slightly under $3 million. The deal was closed Tuesday and announced Wednesday morning.
The Wrapports news release has CEO Timothy Knight calling the Reader “one of the most distinctive voices in the Chicago news community.” It has Brad Bulkley, the Dallas investment banker who brokered the sale for Atalaya Capital Management, pleased “to have been able to place this highly regarded Chicago institution into such capable hands.” In 2007 the Reader was sold by its founders to Creative Loafing Inc., which declared bankruptcy a year later. CLI emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 with Atalaya controlling it. “Fortunately, Atalaya gave us the flexibility to identify the ideal successor,” Bulkley continues.