• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, December 10, 2015

What do you do when your business is on the rocks, you’re cutting hundreds of employees, your biggest property is mired in controversy, and rumors are swirling that you’re about to dump it? In the (possibly apocryphal) words of the French general Ferdinand Foch at the Battle of the Marne: “My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.”

Taking a page from the fiery Frenchman, in the midst of a very public mess at the Los Angeles Times, Tribune Publishing is doubling down with a bid for yet another troubled Southern California newspaper, the Orange County Register, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

Tribune has filed a document with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana declaring its intention to make a “stalking horse offer,” that is, an initial bid testing the marketplace. The company believes it will have best offer when all is said and done.

The acquisition would also give Tribune control of the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Tribune made the filing as part of an objection to the bankruptcy plan filed by part owner and creditor Silver Point Capital, following Tribune’s own offer of $3 million for bankruptcy financing -- a deal which gives it a foot in the door for a bid on the company.

The OC Register’s own management is trying to arrange an independent buyout of the newspaper, led by Freedom Communications CEO Richard Mirman and property developer Mike Harrah.

If it went through, the acquisition would give Tribune control of most of the major newspapers in Southern California, presumably enabling further savings in areas like production and distribution, for example by merging printing and delivery operations.

But the fact remains that the newspaper business in SoCal, as elsewhere in the U.S., is in pretty dire shape.

According to the November bankruptcy filing, Freedom Communications lost $40 million over the last two years, which the current owners blamed on the previous management team, led by Aaron Kushner. Mirman says the newspaper is on course to make a profit this year, but the bankruptcy filing isn’t exactly encouraging.

The acquisition of the San Diego Union-Tribune in May has its own question marks, including taking on a pension plan underfunded to the tune of $107 million. And, of cours,e the woes of the Los Angeles Times are well known.

Putting aside the fraught finances of the acquired properties, the real question is: Will consolidation and cost-cutting prove an effective strategy for long-term profitability amid continuing secular declines in print advertising?