Tribune Media
Tribune Media Company, formerly known as the Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 television stations across the United States and operating three additional stations through local marketing agreements. It owned national basic cable channel/superstation WGN America, regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television and Chicago radio station WGN. Investment interests include the Food Network, in which the company had a 31% share.
Prior to the August 2014 spin-off of the company's publishing division into Tribune Publishing, Tribune Media was the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher behind the Gannett Company, with ten daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, Sun-Sentinel and The Baltimore Sun, and several commuter tabloids.
In 2007, investors bought the company, taking on substantial debt. The subsequent 2008 bankruptcy of the Tribune Company was the largest bankruptcy in the history of the American media industry. In December 2012 the Tribune Co. emerged from bankruptcy. Tribune announced its sale to Hunt Valley, Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group on May 8, 2017, but on August 9, 2018, Tribune cancelled the sale and sued Sinclair for breach of contract. On December 3, 2018, Nexstar Media Group announced that it would merge with Tribune Media for $4.1 billion. Within Nexstar, Tribune Media remains the license holder for all of the former Tribune stations retained directly by Nexstar after the Nexstar acquisition. The largest broadcast merger in U.S. history was approved in 2019.
History
Print pioneer
The Tribune Company was founded on June 10, 1847 when the eponymous Chicago Daily Tribune published its first edition in a one-room plant located at LaSalle and Lake Streets in downtown Chicago. The original press run consisted of 400 copies printed on a hand press. The Tribune constructed its first building, a four-story structure at Dearborn and Madison Streets, in 1869. The building was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871, along with most of the city. The Tribune resumed printing two days later with an editorial declaring "Chicago Shall Rise Again." Joseph Medill, a native Ohioan who acquired an interest in the Tribune in 1855, gained full control of the newspaper in 1874 and ran it until his death in 1899.Medill's two grandsons, cousins Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, assumed leadership in 1911. That same year, the Chicago Tribunes first newsprint mill opened in Thorold, Ontario, Canada. The mill marked the beginnings of the Canadian newsprint producer later known as QUNO, in which Tribune held an investment interest until 1995.
Patterson established the company's second newspaper, the New York News in 1919. Tribune's ownership of the New York City tabloid was considered "interlocking" due to an agreement between McCormick and Patterson.
The paper launched a European edition during World War I. To compete with the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's in 1924, the Tribune Company launched a weekly national magazine, Liberty, run by a subsidiary, McCormick-Patterson.
Move into broadcasting
The company entered broadcasting in 1924 by leasing WDAP, one of Chicago's first radio stations. Tribune later changed the station's call letters to WGN, reflecting the Tribunes nickname, "World's Greatest Newspaper." WGN was purchased by the company in 1926 and went on to become prominent in the radio industry.In 1925, the company completed its new headquarters, the Tribune Tower. That same year, the company decided to fund the future Joseph Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Liberty magazine eventually exceeded Collier's circulation, but lacked sufficient advertising and was sold in 1931. The Tribune's European edition was also cut. However, Tribune launched the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate content syndication service in 1933.
With the death of Joe Patterson's sister and owner of the Washington Times-Herald, Eleanor Patterson, in 1948, the Tribune Company purchased the paper and operated it until 1954, when the Times-Herald was absorbed by The Washington Post. Expecting a printer's strike in November 1948, the Tribune printed their paper early, mistakenly proclaiming "Dewey Defeats Truman" in the 1948 presidential election. Tribune entered the television industry then in its infancy, in 1948, with the establishment of WGN-TV in Chicago in April and WPIX in New York City in June of that year. In 1956, the Tribune Company purchased the Chicago American from William Randolph Hearst.
In the 1960s, the company entered the booming Florida market, acquiring the Fort Lauderdale-based Gore Newspapers Company, owner of the Pompano-based Sun-Sentinel and Fort Lauderdale News in 1963 and the Sentinel-Star Company, owners of the Orlando Sentinel, in 1965. Also in 1963, the company purchased part of the defunct New York Mirror. The company increased its broadcast holdings with the acquisition of radio station WQCD-FM in New York City in 1964 and independent television station KWGN-TV in Denver in 1965. In 1967, the company began printing a tabloid serving suburban areas of Chicago, The Suburban Trib.
The corporation was reorganized in 1968 by reincorporating under Delaware's General Corporation Law, ending its Illinois incorporation, splitting its stock by four for one and forming a separate subsidiary of the Chicago Tribune.
The 1970s brought another decade of acquisitions for the company including the purchase of a Los Angeles shopper in 1973, which became the Los Angeles Daily News. In 1973, the company began sharing stories among 25 subscribers via the newly formed news service, the Knight News Wire. By 1990, this service was known as KRT and provided graphics, photo and news content to its member newspapers. When The McClatchy Company purchased Knight-Ridder Inc. in 2006, KRT became MCT, which was jointly owned by the Tribune Company and McClatchy.
The company stopped publishing the tabloid Chicago Today in 1974; the Tribune also began publishing all-day editions. An approval of changes to the Tribune bylaws in 1974 triggered a lawsuit by shareholders who saw this as a move towards taking the company public. The lawsuit by Josephine Albright – Joseph Patterson's daughter – and her son, Joseph Albright, was dismissed in 1979.
The Tribune Company entered first-run television syndication in 1975 with the debut of the U.S. Farm Report. The Times-Advocate in Escondido, California was purchased by the company in 1977. In October 1978, United Video Satellite Group uplinked WGN-TV's signal to satellite, becoming a national "superstation", joining the ranks of WTCG in Atlanta and WWOR-TV in New York City. During 1978, the New York Daily News saw multiple employee strikes.
In 1980, the Daily News added an afternoon edition to go head-to-head with the New York Post; this expansion failed, with the newspaper reverting to once-daily editions with the end of the afternoon edition in 1981. Also that year, the Independent Network News, an evening newscast intended for independent stations, was launched as the company's second syndicated television program, originating from WPIX. The New York Daily News was put up for sale in 1981, but a proposed deal fell through by 1982. In August of that year, Tribune purchased the Chicago Cubs Major League Baseball team from William Wrigley III.
In 1981, all of Tribune's television stations, which were previously under the WGN Continental Broadcasting unit, were placed under the company's subsidiary Tribune Broadcasting Company. The following year, Tribune formed the Tribune Entertainment Company as a production subsidiary to produce the company's existing syndicated programs including the U.S. Farm Report, as well as newer shows.
Public corporation
In 1983, The Suburban Trib was replaced by zone editions of the Chicago Tribune. That October, the Tribune Company became a public firm, with the sale of 7.7 million shares at $26.75 a share. In 1985, Tribune Broadcasting acquired Los Angeles independent station KTLA from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for a record $510 million. Because of the Federal Communications Commission's media cross-ownership regulations, which prohibit the ownership of a television station and newspaper in the same market, Tribune was forced to sell the Los Angeles Daily News. With the purchase of KTLA, Tribune became the fourth largest television station owner in the United States, behind the three major broadcast networks. The company acquired Newport News, Virginia newspaper, the Daily Press in 1986, but sold off the newspaper's co-owned cable television operations.To counteract a possible hostile corporate takeover in 1987, the Tribune Company developed a plan that allowed shareholders the right to purchase additional preferred shares from a new series of stock in the event that a buyer acquired 10% of the company's common stock or a tender offer for the company. Shareholders also ratified a two-for-one stock split. Tribune Entertainment experienced success in 1987 with the launch of the syndicated daytime talk show Geraldo. In 1988, Tribune purchased five weekly papers based in Santa Clara County, California. In the wake of a dispute with some of its labor unions, Tribune sold the Daily News to British businessman Robert Maxwell in 1991.
With changes in the media industry due to greater public access to the internet in the 1990s, Tribune Publishing began to sell off some of its newspaper properties. Tribune Broadcasting steadily acquired additional stations during the decade, while Tribune itself launched two new divisions, Tribune Ventures and Tribune Education. In 1993, Tribune Broadcasting launched Chicagoland Television, a 24-hour local cable news channel for the Chicago area.
Online editions of Tribune's newspapers were developed starting in 1995, with the Chicago Tribunes digital edition launching in 1996. Also in 1996, Tribune created a joint venture with American Online called Digital City, Inc. to set up a series of Digital City websites to provide interactive local news and information services. By 1997, Tribune Publishing had only four daily newspapers remaining in its portfolio: the Chicago Tribune, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel and the Daily Press. Tribune also set up its Tribune Ventures division to acquire stakes in newer media businesses. During the middle of that year, Tribune Ventures purchased interests in companies such as AOL, electronic payment specialist CheckFree Corporation, search engine company Excite, Inc., Mercury Mail, Inc., Open Market, Inc., and Peapod LP. Also that year, the Orlando Sentinel and Time Warner Cable joined together to create the Orlando-based local cable news channel, Central Florida News 13. Tribune also purchased a 31% stake in the Food Network.
The company began the 1990s with six television stations, but changes to federal radio and television ownership regulations allowed Tribune to expand its television station holdings over the next decade. Tribune Broadcasting purchased ten additional stations by 1997, six of them acquired through that year's purchase of Renaissance Broadcasting for $1.1 billion in cash. Tribune purchased a 12.5% stake in The WB Television Network in August 1995; the company had ten of its 16 stations affiliated with the network. Tribune invested $21 million in The WB in March 1997, which increased its equity interest in the network to 21.9%.
In November 1994, Tribune Broadcasting formed a partnership with several minority partners, including Quincy Jones, to form Qwest Broadcasting. Qwest operated as a separate company from Tribune ;
Tribune entered into a new business sector when it formed Tribune Education in 1993. The sector grew and provided high profit margins. Through 1996, Tribune used $400 million to purchase several publishers of education material: Contemporary Books, Inc., The Wright Group, Everyday Learning Corporation, Jamestown Publishers, Inc., Educational Publishing Corporation, NTC Publishing Group and Janson Publications. In 1996, this group was the number one publisher of supplemental education materials. Tribune Education acquired an 80.5% stake in mass market children's book publisher Landoll in 1997.
In June 1998, Tribune entered into a trade with Emmis Communications to swap WQCD-FM to the latter company, in exchange for acquiring two Emmis-owned television stations. It later traded WGNX in Atlanta to the Meredith Corporation in exchange for KCPQ-TV in Seattle in March 1999. Later that year, the station purchased WEWB in Albany, New York and WBDC in Washington, D.C. Tribune Interactive, Inc. was incorporated to handle all the various websites for its publishing, television and radio, and newspaper properties. During the 1999 fiscal year, Tribune racked up $1.47 billion in profits on total revenues of $2.92 billion, in part from gains made on the sale of some of its internet investments. In February 2000, Tribune acquired the remaining 67% interest in Qwest Broadcasting for $107 million, effectively adding two more stations to its roster, increasing its reach 27% of the country.
In June 2000, Tribune acquired the Los Angeles–based Times Mirror Company in a US$8.3 billion merger transaction, the largest acquisition in the history of the newspaper industry, effectively doubling the size of Tribune's newspaper holdings. The Times Mirror merger added seven daily newspapers to Tribune's existing publishing properties, including the Los Angeles Times, the Long Island-based Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and the Hartford Courant. Through the deal, Tribune became the only media company that owned both newspapers and television stations in the three largest media markets of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, as a result of cross-ownership waivers that were approved by the FCC.
Among other advantages from the merger, including various economies of scale, Tribune's newspapers could now effectively compete for national advertising, as it has grown to become the third largest newspaper group in the country. Tribune Media Net, the national advertising sales organization of Tribune Publishing, was established in 2000 to take advantage of the company's expanded scale and scope. By 2001, revenues had grown to $5.25 billion. However, Tribune needed to pay down some of the debt that it accrued through the Times Mirror purchase; as a result, Tribune moved to sell various non-newspaper holdings operated by Times Mirror. Flight information provider Jeppesen Sanderson was sold to Boeing for $1.5 billion in October 2000. Also in October, the Institute for International Research purchased AchieveGlobal, a consulting and training firm for $100 million. Times Mirror Magazines was sold to Time, Inc. in November of that year for $475 million. Tribune divested its Tribune Education division to The McGraw-Hill Companies for $686 million in September 2000. After all these sales, Tribune still had $4 billion in long-term debt. Tribune started a joint venture with Knight-Ridder, CareerBuilder, that same year.
After the 2001 September 11 attacks, the media sector suffered a greater decrease in advertising revenue. This forced a 10% reduction in staff companywide and a $151.9 million restructuring charge.
In 2002 and 2003, Tribune Broadcasting bought four additional television stations, increasing its total television holdings to 26 stations, some of which were acquired via trades of the company's radio stations; this left its one-time radio flagship WGN in Chicago as the company's sole remaining radio station. Tribune Publishing purchased the monthly lifestyle publication Chicago from Primedia in August 2002. Hoy, a Spanish language newspaper owned by the company, expanded with the launch of local editions in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Tribune also launched daily newspapers targeting younger urban commuters, including the Chicago Tribunes RedEye edition in 2003, followed by an investment in AM New York. That same year, Tribune pushed for the FCC to loosen its regulations barring cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in a single market. Tribune would have to sell either a newspaper or television station in Los Angeles, New York City and Hartford while its combination of the Sun-Sentinel and WBZL-TV in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida was given a temporary waiver. The FCC granted waivers for the other newspaper-television combinations in June 2003.
In 2006, Tribune acquired the minority equity interest in AM New York, giving it full ownership of the newspaper. The company sold both Newsday and AM New York to Cablevision Systems Corporation in 2008.
Tribune's partnership in The WB ended in 2006, when the network was shut down – along with CBS Corporation-owned UPN – to create The CW Television Network, which was a joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros. and affiliated with several Tribune-owned stations; Tribune did not maintain an ownership interest in the network.