Raymond Cyrus "R.C." Hoiles bought The Orange County Register in 1935 and made it the flagship of what was to become Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., once the 12th largest media company in the country with more than 100 papers. The Hoiles family, however, lost its financial interest in the company in April 2010 after Freedom emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The company has gone through dramatic change in the two years since then:

Sept. 1, 2009: Freedom Communications Inc. files for bankruptcy reorganization.

April 30, 2010: Freedom emerges from bankruptcy. A group of investors and banks take control of the company.

June 29, 2010: Mitch Stern, a former Fox television executive, is named Freedom chief executive officer.

Oct. 3, 2011: Michael Henry, Register general manager, is named interim publisher succeeding Terry Horne, who retired.

Nov. 2, 2011: Freedom announces the sale of its eight television stations to Sinclair Broadcast Group for $385 million. The sale left Freedom free of the $325 million in debt it had when it emerged from bankruptcy.

Jan. 12, 2012: Freedom announces the sale of The Tribune in Seymour, Ind. to Indiana-based Home News Enterprises LLC. Terms were not disclosed.

Jan. 31, 2012: Freedom announces the sale of the News Journal in Clovis, N.M. to Clovis Media News. Terms were not disclosed.

April 2, 2012: The sale of Freedom's television stations to Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. closes.

April 17, 2012: Register editor Ken Brusic also takes on the title of interim publisher, succeeding Michael Henry, who left to become chief financial officer of The Denver Post.

Continued here:

Freedom since bankruptcy