Tribune Co. To Spin Off Newspaper, Broadcast Interests Into Separate Companies
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 10, 2013 8:30PM
Tribune Co. announced Wednesday their intent to separate their newspaper and broadcast properties into separate companies, a move “ designed to maximize shareholder value through the spin-off of Tribune’s publishing assets.”
The proposed split will create Tribune Publishing Company, consisting of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, and other papers the company currently owns. The other company, Tribune Company, will consist of 42 local television stations in 33 markets, WGN Radio, superstation WGN America, Tribune Studios, Tribune Digital Ventures, Tribune Media Services, its equity interests in Classified Ventures, CareerBuilder, and Food Network, and the company’s real estate portfolio.
The split has been speculated on since Tribune Co. emerged from bankruptcy in January and, judging from the split, Tribune is bullish on the broadcasting properties. In addition to their television and radio holdings, Tribune bought the 19 stations in the Local TV Holdings network last month for $2.73 billion. Moving the newspapers to a separate company will also shield tribune of the tax burden it would face if they tried to sell off the papers outright. Tribune is still considering selling its print assets and the Chicago Tribune reports the split could result in higher bids for print properties to compensate Tribune Co. for those taxes.
Tribune Co. CEO Peter Liguori said in a statement.
"Moving to separate our publishing and broadcasting assets into two distinct companies will bring single-minded attention to the journalistic standards, advertising partnerships and digital prospects of our iconic newspapers, while also enabling us to take advantage of the operational and strategic opportunities created by the significant scale we are building in broadcasting. In addition, the separation is designed to allow each company to maximize its flexibility and competitiveness in a rapidly changing media environment."