Owner of Dozens of Newspapers Seeks Buyers

Digital First Media, a struggling collection of 76 daily newspapers including The San Jose Mercury News, The Los Angeles Daily News, The Denver Post and The St. Paul Pioneer Press, has put itself up for sale.

The company, which is the nation’s second-largest newspaper company as measured by circulation, was expected to be sold at some point because it was owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital. But John Paton, Digital First’s chief executive, said that it made sense to sell the newspapers now because of the radical changes taking place in the media industry.