Sun-Times parent to buy Chicago Reader for $3 million

Wrapports LLC, the parent of the Chicago Sun-Times, is poised to purchase the Chicago Reader as soon as next week for about $3 million, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

The alternative weekly is being sold by New York investment firm Atalaya Capital Management L.P., which acquired it along with four other weeklies out of bankruptcy in 2009 after lending money to prior owners at Tampa, Fla.-based Creative Loafing Inc. Brad Bulkley, the investment banker hired by Atalaya to sell the Creative Loafing papers, said in an emailed statement that a "deal is close, but no deal is final until it actually closes."