Apr. 24, 2013
12:02 pm
If Koch brothers purchased Tribune, what would it mean for current Los Angeles Times staffers?
In their very-brief no-comment on the sale rumors, the Kochs took care to note, “We respect the independence of the journalist institutions” owned by Tribune, but the staffs at those papers fear that, once Kochified, the papers would quickly turn into print versions of Fox News. A recent informal poll that one L.A. Times writer conducted of his colleagues showed that almost all planned to exit if the Kochs took control (and that included sportswriters and arts writers). Those who stayed would have to grapple with how to cover politics and elections in which their paper’s owners played a leading role. It’s also unclear who in Los Angeles, one of the nation’s most liberal cities, would actually want to read such a paper, but then the Kochs don’t appear to view this as a money-making venture.
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Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post
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Andrew Beaujon
Apr. 22, 2013
10:28 am
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Andrew Beaujon
Mar. 15, 2013
6:33 am
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Andrew Beaujon
Mar. 12, 2013
11:16 am
LA Weekly
A "member of the L.A. Times Editorial Board" tells Hillel Aron that Charles and David Koch may help buy the paper by financing "a bid by 'Papa Doug' Manchester, himself a right-wing multimillionaire who in 2009 bought the San Diego Union-Tribune and promptly turned it into a propaganda organ for San Diego development."
"It's hard to believe there's a chance that the liberal and Hollywood-adjacent Los Angeles Times might one day be owned by the Koch Brothers," Aron writes. But Tribune is
said to want to keep all or most of its papers together in a sale, and the Kochs, Aron writes, have the interest and financial wherewithal to finance such a bid.
Also, Aron notes, they own Georgia Pacific, and "their grandfather, Harry Koch, once ran a weekly newspaper in Texas after emigrating there from the Netherlands."
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Andrew Beaujon
Feb. 26, 2013
2:20 pm
CNBC
Tribune will hire Evercore Partners and JPMorgan Chase to sell its newspaper properties, Kayla Tausche reports, saying the bankers will "lead an auction over the course of the coming weeks."
Tribune spokesperson Gary Weitman confirms Tribune has hired Evercore and JPMorgan but says the company isn't planning an auction: "There is a lot of interest in our newspapers, which we haven’t solicited," he writes in an email to Poynter. "Hiring outside financial advisors will help us determine whether that interest is credible, allow us to consider all of our options, and fulfill our fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders and employees."
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (I think you mean
New News Corporation, CNBC!) "is expected to play a prominent role in those discussions," Tausche reports.
Murdoch is reportedly
interested in buying the Los Angeles Times and has been mentioned as a buyer of Tribune's other papers, which include the flagship Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the Hartford Courant. News Corp owns television stations in Chicago and Los Angeles, so FCC cross-ownership regulations would make it difficult for the company to buy newspapers in those markets.
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Andrew Beaujon
Feb. 20, 2013
12:37 pm
Connecticut Newsroom |
LA Observed |
New Haven Register
The Hartford Courant has a new site called
CourantPlus. Matt DeRienzo, group editor of Journal Register Company's Connecticut papers,
calls it a paywall. Print subscribers, he reports, received a postcard offering free access to the site through March 17.
"The Hartford Courant has not implemented a pay-wall," Courant Publisher Rich Graziano tells Poynter in an email. "What Mr. DeRienzo is referencing is market research."
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Julie Moos
Dec. 31, 2012
4:17 am
Chicago Tribune | L.A. Times | Bloomberg | Reuters
As the Tribune company ends a four-year period of bankruptcy today, it plans to sell all of its media properties, according to a report by Robert Channick.
Tribune Co. owns 23 television stations, including WGN-Ch. 9, WGN America, eight daily newspapers and other media assets, all of which the reorganization plan valued at $4.5 billion after cash distributions and new financing. Eventually, all the assets are expected to be sold, according to the new owners.
A financial analysis this year estimated the broadcast assets are worth $2.85 billion; a stake in the Food Network and Internet companies including CareerBuilder is worth $2.26 billion; and the company's newspapers are worth $623 million.
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Andrew Beaujon
Dec. 14, 2012
12:15 am
The Morning Call |
Bloomberg
Warren Buffett is
interested in purchasing The (Allentown, Pa.) Morning Call, Sam Kennedy reports. The Morning Call is among the newspapers reportedly about to be cut loose by Tribune Co. as it emerges from bankruptcy.
Kennedy quotes Buffett as saying: "Allentown is our kind of place."
"We haven't heard anything from the Tribune Co.," Buffett told The Morning Call after the paper emailed him an inquiry, "but if the phone rings, I'll answer."
Figures from the Alliance for Audited Media (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations) show that The Morning Call's average daily circulation in September was 83,654, down a little more than 10 percent over the same month in 2011. Its average Sunday circulation was 120,127, down nearly 3 percent from the year before.
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Andrew Beaujon
Dec. 11, 2012
1:10 pm
Bloomberg News
The Tribune Company is "
is interviewing bankers about selling its papers," Edmund Lee and Serena Saitto report. It's due to exit bankruptcy by Dec. 31, they write.
Rupert Murdoch is among the people interested in Tribune's papers, Lee and Saitto write; he's already
expressed interest in Tribune's Los Angeles Times.
Lynne Marek reported in May that
Tribune would create eight companies. “This structure may make the assets more attractive to a potential buyer and makes it a cleaner transaction by putting the good assets in one place and carving out legacy costs,” restructuring consultant Dan Wikel told Marek.
"I think this news is consistent with a fairly positive trend for the industry this year," Poynter business analyst Rick Edmonds says. "Admittedly at relatively low prices, papers coming up for sale are finding a number of interested buyers."
Who might end up with Tribune's papers?
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