Who paid off the local LB newspaper?

UPDATE While there may not be any monkey business going on with regard to the decreased coverage from the Long Beach Press Telegram (hence rumor downgraded to 'false'), Jim Michaelian did have this to say – "The City-side coverage of the event has been excellent this year, better than other years, but the coverage for our event in the sports section has been disappointing."

04/20/13 One rumor making the rounds in Long Beach is that some devious entity has paid off the owners of the Long Beach Press Telegram newspaper to only provide minimum coverage of the race this weekend, perhaps in an effort to hurt the attendance so they can devalue the event and buy it for less money.

Whereas the race was extensively covered Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday with front page as well as sports page headline stories and huge photos all three days in the past, this weekend Friday had nothing on the front page and hardly a story in the sports section. Saturday morning has a small story on the front page (not a feature story) and a small story on the sports page (not a feature story). And the overall coverage in the sports section is significantly reduced from prior years.

The reduction in coverage is significant and quite noticeable.