Following rumors that reverend Sun Myung Moon would be buying back The Washington Times from his son Preston Moon, the terms of the deal have been released.
Douglas Joo, a trusted friend of Mr. Moon and a former chairman of the paper who was dismissed by Mr. Moon’s son, is handling the deal to buy the paper back. Mr. Joo will pay a dollar to acquire the paper for News World Media Development LLC, a company he registered in Delaware.
“These are exactly the same terms on which Newsweek was sold by the Washington Post Company at the beginning of August,” wrote Washington Times adviser Michael Marshall in a memo to the paper’s staff that was leaked to the press.
Mr. Marshall also wrote that he couldn’t understand why there were rumors that the paper was preparing to close as Mr. Joo was moving close to a deal. He also cleared the name of Preston Moon, who was accused of driving the paper into the ground. Donations intended for The Washington Times gathered from Japanese supporters of Mr. Moon’s Unification Church, according to Mr. Marshall, were sort of lost in the mail.
“What happened to the money remains a mystery at this point and a source of speculation,” he wrote.
