A new potential buyer has thrown its hat in the ring for the Daily Herald, a newspaper serving Chicago's northern, northwestern and western suburbs.

On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune took out a full-page ad in its own paper offering the employee owners of the Daily Herald a 30% premium over “anyone else” to acquire their newspaper.

The Tribune declined to comment Monday.

The publisher of the Daily Herald filed notice with the state last month that it is considering a sale of the northwest suburban newspaper.

In the Jan. 6 letter to the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Paddock Publications said it was notifying the state and its employees 120 days before the potential sale, a requirement of a new law to support the dwindling number of local news outlets across Illinois.

Executives at Paddock Publications did not respond to a request for comment Monday, and the name of the prospective buyer was not disclosed in the filing.

It has been reported that Crystal Lake, Illinois-based Shaw Media, a 175-year-old, family-owned company whose portfolio includes dozens of smaller newspapers across northern Illinois, has made a bid for the Daily Herald.

Shaw executives did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Founded in 1872 as the Cook County Herald, the suburban Chicago newspaper has grown into the third-largest daily print publication in Illinois, with a current circulation of 52,410, according to its website. Owned by the Paddock family for more than a century, the newspaper was converted to an employee stock ownership plan in 2018.

In its full-page ad Sunday, the Tribune made its pitch directly to the employee owners of the Daily Herald to “encourage Paddock’s management” to consider a higher offer.

“We at the Chicago Tribune, can pay the highest price to acquire Paddock, 30% more than anyone else,” the ad read. “If you are an equity holder of Paddock through the ESOP, you will be the direct beneficiary of the highest and best sale price.”

The Tribune and the Daily Herald already have a working relationship.

In 2023, Tribune Publishing bought the Daily Herald printing plant for an undisclosed price, shifting its own operations there the following year when the Chicago newspaper vacated the Freedom Center to make way for the permanent Bally’s Chicago casino, which is now under construction and set for a delayed opening next year.

Paddock Publications fired up the presses at the $50 million printing plant on 21 acres by the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway in 2003 to churn out its flagship Daily Herald. As part of the Schaumburg plant acquisition, Tribune began printing the Daily Herald under contract.

Enacted on Jan. 1, 2025, the Strengthening Community Media Act requires a local news organization to give 120 days’ written notice to employees, the DCEO, county officials and “any in-state nonprofit organization in the business of buying local news organizations” before selling to a new company.

The legislation cites the declining number of local newspapers and reporters across the state and the need to combat misinformation and provide trusted news sources as the impetus for the required advance sale disclosure.

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