Malware affects production at newspapers nationwide, including in Chicago

A computer virus affected Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Publishing’s newspapers across the country and also struck the Los Angeles Times, the two companies said on Saturday.

Tribune Publishing on Friday discovered the presence of malware which “impacted some back-office systems which are primarily used to publish and produce newspapers across our properties,” Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said. As a result, the Chicago Tribune’s print edition Saturday was published without paid death notices and classified ads.

The Tribune’s Freedom Center printing press also prints the Chicago Sun-Times. Despite some production snags, there were no issues with Sun-Times completeness, but delivery was affected.

“The malware unfortunately impacted our timeliness and delivery of Saturday’s Chicago Sun-Times,” Kollias said. “We are working diligently to resolve this matter.”

For Tribune subscribers, “there is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias added. “The personal data of our subscribers, online users, and advertising clients has not been compromised.”

In Los Angeles, the virus prevented the printing and delivering of Saturday editions of the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune and other papers to some subscribers.

Biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong bought both the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune this year for $500 million. The papers had previously been part of Tronc, the previous name of Tribune Publishing.

Contributing: Associated Press