Freedom Communications CEO Rich Mirman said his investor group submitted a bid Friday for The Orange County Register and The Press-Enterprise, setting up what appears to be a three-way battle for Freedom’s assets in a court-run auction next week.

Terms of the bid by Mirman’s group were not disclosed.

Two of the region’s other newspaper publishers also are expected to be bidders on Wednesday at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction: Digital First Media, owner of the Los Angeles Daily News and Long Beach Press-Telegram; and Tribune Publishing, owner of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune.

“Orange County and the Inland Empire are two very powerful and healthy media markets,” Mirman wrote to employees in a letter on Friday explaining the bid. “As the primary source of local news and information in those markets, we look forward to serving our communities for many years to come.”

Bids for Freedom’s assets – two newspapers and related real estate – were due by Friday in advance of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court-supervised auction.

Freedom creditors will be paid back through the auction of the company’s assets, which includes the two newspapers and related real estate. The sale is expected to close March 31.

Digital First and Tribune both seek to grow their Southern California market reach and create savings by eliminating corporate overlap in a newspaper business grappling with shrinking readership, competition and advertising moving away from printed products.

Ron Hasse, president of Digital First’s Los Angeles News Group, said his company is committed to winning the auction. He described the Register and Press-Enterprise in Riverside as solid businesses opportunities and said “we’ve got good plans for them, if we are to win.”

Freedom publishes six of Digital First’s nine daily newspapers in the region at the Register’s printing plant in Santa Ana. But Hasse said printing services are not a primary goal of their bidding interest.

“We plan to invest back into the Register and Press-Enterprise and keep them, strong, local and independent,” Hasse said.

On Friday, three community leaders sent a letter asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Mark S. Wallace to “retain local control of Orange County’s only media asset.” The letter was signed by Orange County Business Council President Lucy Dunn, Orange County United Way President Max Gardner and Orange County Community Foundation President Shelley Hoss.

“The Register is at a turning point. Our locally owned newspaper with over a century covering the Orange County community faces possible acquisition by newspaper corporations built on geographic strength in numbers,” they wrote.

“This means Orange County risks losing its local news coverage in favor of more regionally focused news. Local newsroom replaced by regional assets. Less La Habra and Ladera Ranch. More Long Beach and Los Angeles. With this, we risk losing not just the watchdog power of the media but also 111 years of chronicled history. We risk, at least as far as the media is concerned, once again becoming just another outpost.”

Freedom filed for bankruptcy protection in November. Mirman, who was a Freedom consultant and investor, took over as chief executive in March 2015. He said at the time of the bankruptcy filing that his group, which includes Santa Ana developer Michael Harrah and Freedom Chairman Eric Spitz, would seek to be the stalking horse bidder, but the group has since changed plans.

Digital First and Tribune previously said they proposed “stalking horse” bids to Freedom that would set the auction’s opening price. An accepted stalking horse bidder gets a small fee for its work.

Freedom has not publicly accepted any stalking horse bid and one is not needed to hold the auction.

Tribune reaffirmed its interest in Freedom’s two papers earlier this month after a boardroom shakeup in February. The Chicago-based newspaper company named a new chairman and largest shareholder, Michael Ferro. Ferro then selected Justin Dearborn as Tribune’s new chief executive.

Dearborn told Wall Street analysts on March 2 that Tribune was eager to make a deal to bolster its Southern California holdings but that the company would not overpay for Freedom assets.

One big question is Freedom’s sale price, which will be tricky to determine because of the complicated collection of businesses being sold. One of Freedom’s advisers estimated in court papers that the bidding could start at $40 million. But since the company – along with its advisers and creditors committee – has not yet accepted a stalking horse bid proposal, Freedom may sell for a lower price.

Newspaper analyst Ken Doctor predicted Tribune would win the auction, especially after new chairman Ferro gave a recent interview to the Chicago Tribune describing his thoughts on the potential of the L.A. Times. Dominating a region, like Tribune could do in Southern California by acquiring Freedom’s papers, is one path to prosperity in the struggling newspaper industry, Doctor said.

“Given Michael Ferro’s new L.A.-centric ambitions, Tribune Publishing is the only logical longer-term buyer for the Register and Press-Enterprise,” Doctor says. “In the newspaper business today, the only way to make money is to save more money.

“That expense reduction, probably in the $10 million to $12 million range for a Tribune Publishing owning everything between San Diego and northern L.A. County, is still what drives this deal.”

Contact the writer: jlansner@ocregister.com