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Tribune Co. plans to lower debt, cut content, ‘right-size’ its papers
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Related Topics: BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - In a Thursday conference call with reporters, Tribune Co. Chairman and CEO Sam Zell indicated that the employee-owned company — owner of The Chicago Tribune, The Sun, several other dailies and 23 broadcast stations — likely would soon be cutting editorial content and assessing reporter productivity in order to increase earnings.
“We are actively pursuing a program to right-size our newspapers,” said Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels, who outlined a series of innovations and efficiencies to increase sales, reduce company costs and lower its $10.6 billion debt.
“We have found out we can take about 500 editorial pages a week out of our newspapers in a 50/50 ad-to-content ratio,” Michaels added, noting that the result would still “be a good value for the consumer.”
Michaels hinted that headquarters would be looking at reporters’ output and possibly cutting those not on a par with their peers.
With first-quarter Tribune Co. total publishing advertising revenue down 15 percent year-over-year and an economy teetering on a recession, Zell stressed the need for such drastic change.
Stating that Tribune Co.’s “print declines are on a par with the industry,” Zell noted, however, that the company’s Q1 broadcasting and entertainment revenues were up 3 percent year-over-year and that its sale of Newsday to New York’s CableVision Systems Corporation will net it $650 million in cash.
Zell also announced that Tribune Co. has enlisted a major bank to help it launch an asset-backed commercial paper program that he estimated would bring in another $250 million this year.
The two deals, which Zell believes will be finalized by September, will, he said, “satisfy [Tribune Co.’s] principal amortization requirements through the year 2008.”
In a review of Tribune Co.’s first-quarter financials, Chief Financial Officer Chandler Bigelow noted that consolidated revenues were down 8 percent — or $95 million — year-over-year and that publishing total revenue was off 11 percent.
Comments from Examiner Readers
4:41 AM MST on Wed., Jul. 16, 2008 re: "Sun layoffs loom as buyout response lags cut-back minimum"
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6:36 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 4, 2008
re: "Newspaper Guild assents to The Sun’s buyout terms"
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10:12 AM MST on Wed., Jul. 2, 2008
re: "Newspaper Guild assents to The Sun’s buyout terms"
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10:01 PM MST on Mon., Mar. 24, 2008
re: "Sun owner reviewing ‘core assets’ as Tribune Co. reports bleak earnings"
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11:13 AM MST on Wed., Feb. 6, 2008
re: "Purchase of Sun plant could pave way for redevelopment"
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The Corrector said:
They publish two daily newspapers - The Sun and b.
3 agree | 2 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I am certain that if The Sun had not succumb to being a liberal rag it would still be flourishing. As a conservative, I subscribe to The Sun but only do so out of habit and because I like to know what the enemy is espousing.
2 agree | 8 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Wow! Mr. Corrigan finally wrote an article about something other than nonprofits. He didn't write it well, but at least it was about something else. For example, when the labor unit goes from 500 to 400, we don't need an explanation that 45 were last year and 45 were this year. Also note that 45 + 45 does not equal 100.
11 agree | 4 disagree
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Hollow Man said:
What "core assets"? A newspaper that is losing circulation and is sooo 1980's it's no wonder nobody reads it. News is on the web, baby. Print media is a quaint hold over from a time now past. The Sun is setting into irrelevancy and good riddance.
5 agree | 6 disagree
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BA said:
Why not redevelop an already residentially aimed area? Traffic will only get ten times worse at that bottle neck on Hanover Street, which it and 95 would be the only entrance and exit to that area.
33 agree | 40 disagree
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