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Tribune Company Ponders Sale of Media Assets

After a five-hour board meeting in Chicago yesterday, the Tribune Co. said it would consider selling any or all of its 11 newspapers - which include the Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun - and 25 television stations.

That move could reshape the media landscape, writes The New York Times.

The announcement came after the board approved an agreement between the company and the California-based Chandler family, the company’s largest shareholder, which has been pressuring the company to sell its broadcast properties or consider breaking up. Tribune agreed to create a committee that would oversee an exploration of “alternatives for creating additional value for shareholders.”

The exploration could look at a number of outcomes, from the sale of individual properties to breaking up the company to taking it private. The exploratory process is expected to conclude by year’s end. The restructuring of the partnerships between Tribune Co. and the Chandler family will allow the company to move quickly when decisions are made.

Chief executive Dennis FitzSimons called the meeting very positive, but refused to discuss the conflict at the Los Angeles Times, where the editor and publisher have publicly refused to make newsroom cuts demanded by the company.

Tribune shares, like other public media companies, have fallen significantly in recent years.

Knight Ridder, which until June was the second-largest newspaper company in the country after Gannett, was under similar pressure from shareholders to increase stock prices or to sell. The company sold to McClatchy.

Analysts say there is likely a limited pool of buyers for the company in its current form. Three billionaires in Los Angeles have stepped forward to express interest in buying the LA Times, which might indicate that other local buyers for individual properties might emerge.

Related Tribune stories:

• Three Top Times Editors: ‘If Baquet Goes, We Go, Too’
• ‘LA Times,’ Tribune Come to ‘Understanding’
• Tribune May Decide Fate of ‘LA Times’ Thursday
• LA Times Ed. Defies Parent Company, Refuses to Cut Jobs
Tribune Faces Earnings Drop, Blames WB’s ‘Lame Duck’ Status

Related Knight Ridder stories:

• Businessman Sues to Block Sale of ‘Mercury News,’ Others
• McClatchy Unloads Five More Papers
• MediaNews Acquires Four McClatchy Papers for $1 Billion
• Newspaper Guild Bids ‘Aggressively’ on Knight Ridder Papers
• Billionaire Burkle Joins Union Workers to Bid for 12 McClatchy Papers
• Newspaper Staff to Buy 12 McClatchy Papers
• McClatchy CEO on Newspaper Demise: ‘I Beg to Differ’
• Ridder Surprised, Saddened by McClatchy’s Sale of 12 Papers
• McClatchy to Purchase Knight Ridder, Sell 12 Papers
• McClatchy Reportedly Top Knight Ridder Bidder
• Knight Ridder Bidding Deadline Looms
• Gannett Wants to Pick and Choose from Knight Ridder Papers
• Knight Ridder Interest Exceeds Expectations
• Knight Ridder Considers Selling, Other Options
• Investors Pushing Knight Ridder Sale, Still