One of the great things about being a journalist is you get to make predictions...and if you're wrong, people often forget what you wrote anyway.

I'm wondering if Victoria newspaper baron David Black, owner of Black Press, has his eyes on the Sun-Times Media Group, which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and 70 community papers in the U.S. Midwest.

The low-key Black, no relation to disgraced former Chicago Sun-Times owner Conrad Black, likes buying newspapers at discounted rates.

He bought the Akron Beacon Journal daily paper in Ohio in 2006 for US$165 million, and later laid off a significant number of staff members to drive down costs.

The Sun-Times Media Group, formerly known as Hollinger International, has seen its stock slide from a high of $6.23 over the past 12 months to 35 cents.

The market capitalization of the much larger Sun-Times Media Group is less than a third of the amoung Black paid for the Akron paper.

When the price of Sun-Times Media Group shares fell below $1, it was delisted from major exchanges and now trades on the U.S. Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board.

Over the past couple of days, the share price has shot up to 49 cents. Someone is scooping up some shares, perhaps on the belief that the company will be taken over.

David Black might be a logical buyer because he has been expanding his holdings, and he can take advantage of a sharp drop in the U.S. dollar relative to the Canadian dollar. 

Earlier this week, Sun-Times Media Group settled its longstanding dispute with Hollinger Inc., which is the Toronto-based company that Conrad Black and David Radler controlled for so many years.

Daily newspaper publishers are facing hard times these days as a result of the rise of the Internet.

CanWest Global Communications Corp., owner of the Vancouver Sun and Province and many other Canadian newspapers, saw its share price slip below $4 for the first time this month. CanWest shares traded at a high of $11.74 this year, and closed at $3.93 yesterday.

Torstar Corp., owner of the Toronto Star, closed below $13 for the first time in years this month. It has rallied to open at $13.55 today.