Media

Los Angeles Times Watch: Up For Sale?

Chicago Tribune: Local Moguls Express Interest in Buying L.A. Times

Local investors express interest in bidding for the Tribune Co. paper amid a boardroom rift.

Could the Los Angeles Times once again be up for sale?

That question is on the minds of several of the city’s richest businessmen, who reaffirmed this week their interest in bidding for the country’s fourth-largest daily newspaper.

Billionaire investor Ron Burkle, former Olympics organizer and Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and philanthropist Eli Broad have indicated in recent interviews or in comments to others that they would like to buy The Times or see it in local hands.

“The L.A. Times is a world-class brand,” Ueberroth, a financier and former travel entrepreneur, said in an interview this week. “We’re always attracted to quality brands.”

Though analysts estimate that The Times could sell for about $1 billion, Publisher Jeff Johnson said the paper was not for sale. With about $1 billion in annual sales, the paper accounts for about 18% of Tribune’s revenue and about 17% of operating profit.

Los Angeles can only hope.

The direction of this world renown and Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper has been down ever since purchased by the Tribune Company. The Los Angeles Times needs new management, new technology and new thinking of media in the 21st century.

And the Chandler Family shareholders of the Tribune Company are not pleased either.

Reuters: Tribune investor urges split or sale of company

Tribune Co.’s (NYSE:TRBnews) second-largest shareholder urged the publisher and broadcaster to break itself up by the end of the year or consider a sale of the entire company, calling its media strategy a failure, according to a filing released on Wednesday.

The Chandler Trusts, which own about 12 percent of Tribune’s shares, said in a filing with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the company “must find a way to separate the newspaper business from television broadcasting.”

In a letter addressed to the Tribune board of directors, the Chandler Trusts said that the company had not achieved its aims of boosting profits by owning complementary media outlets in major U.S. markets. They expressed fears the future would be no different unless it changes course.

“This strategy has failed,” said the Chandler Trusts, which represents the Chandler family.

The Chandlers said the company should consider a tax-free spinoff as the most effective way to accomplish the split. It said Tribune’s board has been considering such a move for “many months” but has taken no action.

Three Tribune board members representing the Chandler Trusts signed the letter. The Chandler family took a stake in Tribune as part of its agreement to sell the Times-Mirror Co., and its flagship Los Angeles Times newspaper, to Tribune for $8.3 billion in 2000.

Local control of the Los Angeles Times would be in the best interests of the residents of southern California.

Will there be enough circulation left upon which to begin a revitalization of the property?

Probably with aggressive new management ………

Stay tuned……..


Technorati Tags: , ,

One Comment

  • Edward Padgett

    As a thirty-three year employee of the Los Angeles Times, were not sure what the outcome of all this will mean to the employees and their families.

    The Times has been in a downward spiral ever since the Tribune purchased Times Mirror in 2000, circulation has dropped to levels not seen since the closing of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

    Employee moral hits new lows every year as the stock nears new fifty-two week lows every month.

    Maybe selling the Times to local ownership might turn things around, and maybe not?

    Ed