WASHINGTON, August 31, 2009 (AFP) - Freedom Communications, owner of the Orange County Register and 30 other US newspapers, is expected to file for bankruptcy protection this week, according to published reports.

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times quoted unidentified sources as saying that the bankruptcy filing would lead to Freedom's lenders taking over the company, which is owned by the Hoiles family.

The Times said the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which protects a company from its creditors while it restructures, could come as early as Tuesday.

The Journal said Freedom's lenders hold some $770-million in debt and include J.P. Morgan Chase and Co., SunTrust Banks and Union Bank of California.

Two private-equity firms, Blackstone Group and Providence Equity Partners, acquired a 40 percent equity stake in Freedom five years ago for $460-million.

Besides the Register, the third-largest newspaper in California after the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and 30 other papers, Freedom also owns eight television stations according to the Journal.

Like other newspapers in the United States, the Register has been grappling with a slide in advertising revenue, declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

The US newspaper industry has been hit by a wave of bankruptcies, job cuts and closures, including a bankruptcy filing by the Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and other major papers.

The 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor went online-only earlier this year and two major dailies, the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colorado, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, have shut down in recent months.

US newspaper advertising revenue fell by 29 percent in the second quarter of the year, according to the latest figures, continuing a slide which has left many dailies awash in a sea of red ink.