By Moira Herbst
BusinessWeek.com
Published: 11/14/12006
Excerpt:
With declining circulations and dwindling advertising revenues,
newspaper companies have been struggling for years. As their stock
prices have come under pressure, shareholders have pressed for some
companies to be broken up. In the crosshairs this year is Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and Newsday, as well as the Chicago Cubs baseball team (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/13/06, "The Real Story at Tribune").
The result is that, after 40 years of big, publicly traded companies such as Tribune and Gannett leading consolidation in the industry by buying up small papers, the
industry looks like it's headed toward a new era in ownership. A new
breed of wealthy businessmen -- including ex-General Electric
CEO Jack Welch, billionaires Eli Broad and Ronald Burkle, and
DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen -- are looking over the books of
struggling companies as they consider buying marquee newspapers, such
as the Los Angeles Times and The Boston Globe. Most recently, Maurice Greenberg, the former chairman of insurer American International Group, has expressed an interest in Tribune Co. and even Dow Jones, according to a report in The New York Times. ...
