Anschutz Sued Over Examiner

The San Francisco Examiner‘s former owners are suing to regain control of the newspaper and other publishing assets, alleging that a former company executive misled them into selling the paper to Philip Anschutz for $20 million last year.

The Fang family, which owned the Examiner for three years, wants a Superior Court judge to nullify the paper’s sale to Anschutz as part of a lawsuit against him and Examiner publisher P. Scott McKibben. Before Anschutz bought the Examiner almost a year ago, McKibben oversaw the paper for the Fangs.

Anschutz, the principal behind Anschutz Entertainment Group , formed Clarity Media Group to handle his growing stable of newspapers. Those include three Washington, D.C.-area papers the Denver billionaire bought in September.

In their suit, the Fangs allege McKibben rebuffed other potential buyers so Anschutz could buy the paper and other assets at a deeply discounted price. It also contends McKibben – whose brother Ryan was an Anschutz consultant at the time of the sale – concealed that possible conflict of interest as he negotiated the deal.

After the family agreed to the sale, Anschutz named P. Scott McKibben as the Examiner‘s publisher and subsequently named Ryan McKibben as chief executive of Clarity Media Group, the suit alleges.

The Fangs filed their complaint in November after P. Scott McKibben sued them, claiming the family owed him $1.2 million in commission for brokering the deal. The family, however, says it never signed a contract authorizing the commission.

The family members claim they should also be awarded $11 million in damages.

Anschutz is trying to resuscitate the Examiner as a free tabloid. He is also seeking to trademark the name “Examiner” for newspapers in 69 cities.