firms, Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners, to raise $1 billion to buy out dissident Hoiles family shareholders, but the family retains control of the company.

2006: Scott Flanders is named Freedom CEO. He leaves three years later, becoming CEO of Playboy Enterprises.

July 2012: Boston businessmen Aaron Kushner and Eric Spitz and their 2100 Trust group buy Freedom Communications for $50 million. After years of staff reductions, the new owners go on a hiring spree; the newsroom staff alone balloons from roughly 185 to more than 400. With a focus on print, rather than digital, the pair launch new sections, magazines and expanded community editions.

December 2012: AsFreedom moves to sell off its smaller daily newspapers, the company acquires Churm Media, which includes three local magazines.

November 2013: Kushner and Spitzbuy The Press-Enterprise, a daily paper in Riverside, for $27.25 million.

August 2013: Freedom launches the Long Beach Register, a daily newspaper.

April 2014: The Los Angeles Register is launched in April, but folds in September. The Long Beach Register folds in December.

October 2014:Rich Mirman, a Freedom investor and former casino executive, replaces Kushner as publisher. The Los Angeles Times sues the Register, claiming the newspaper breached a delivery contract with the Times to switch to new carriers. The rapid switch disrupts delivery of the Register for months.

March 2016: Bankruptcy auction begins March 16 for ownership of The Register and Press-Enterprise. After Tribune is announced as the auction's winner, the Department of Justice seeks and receives a temporary restraining order to stop the sale. Digital First Media announced Saturday that