Newspaper publisher Freedom Communications Inc., owner of the Orange County Register, on Sunday filed for bankruptcy-court protection with a plan to sell the beleaguered company to a local investment group led by the company's publisher, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Richard E. Mirman, a former casino executive and Freedom's chief executive, placed the newspaper publisher into chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana, Calif. Mirman and Orange County developer Mike Harrah, intend to buy the publisher's assets out of bankruptcy, subject to higher bids at a court-supervised auction. In a letter to employees, Mirman said Freedom was on pace to post a profit this year, but said accumulated losses under the company's previous leadership have left the publisher in too deep of a hole.
