Tribune Company Loses $121M In Q3

CHICAGO — Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, other newspapers and the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field, said Monday it swung to a loss of $121.6 million for the third quarter as newspaper advertising revenue fell.

The privately held company's net income in the same quarter a year earlier was $152.8 million. Revenue fell 10.5 percent to $1.04 billion, from $1.16 billion a year ago, the company said.

"We are operating in an exceptionally difficult financial and economic environment," Chief Executive Sam Zell said in a statement. "The newspaper industry continues to see extraordinary declines in ad revenues, and Tribune is no exception."

Publishing revenue fell 13 percent to $654 million, as advertising revenue dropped 19 percent, and total paid circulation fell 7 percent from a year ago to 2.2 million from Monday to Friday.

Revenue from the broadcasting division, which includes 23 TV stations, fell 8.3 percent to $264.4 million from $288.3 million a year ago.

The company was taken private last December in an $8.2 billion buyout led by real estate mogul Sam Zell. It still must report its results to comply with bondholder agreements.

Tribune said its debt load increased to $11.8 billion at the end of the third quarter, up from $9.4 billion a year ago.

The company is looking to sell part of all of the Cubs baseball team and other sports properties to help pay down its debt.

Tribune also has been considering selling its iconic headquarters building in Chicago, called Tribune Tower, and the headquarters of the Los Angeles Times, known as Times Mirror Square.

Comments

[TommyMcCarthy]

Sorry, that's not enough for a bailout and a bonus yet,............
Give us a call when you've lost 121 BILLION...
......and the taxpayers will fix you up with a nice little bonus...k?
tm

[Realist]

Company taken private for $8.2 billion last year and in ONE year added another $3 billion in debt. Meanwhile, last year same quarter it earned 110 million - and still added $3billion in debt. Someone is robbing the piggybank.

The sellers who were the NYC bankers and the old execs walked with hundreds of millions in profits are outed for being thiefs with inside track to debt markets to finance the deal b/c all the bankers in NYC wanted to cash out - so they financed Zell's debt, an aspiring mogul, with only $300 million of his own skin in the game, the employees pension as security, one year later looks to me all the cash and even more has been taken out of the company. In fact for Zell's $300 million down looks like he was able to leverage another $3 billion on top of the original $8 billion. So he is a thief too. Only losers are employees who are still working there thinking they have a a future. Right - wake up Argentina style thes epensions will be swallowed by Barack ....

[fliponon]

I've read the LA Times for over 10 years and what's happened to the paper since Zell took over is a disgrace. During the first part of the Iraq war the coverage from the LA Times was some of the best in the country. They won more Pulitzers than any other paper. But now they are so desperate you can't even cancel the rag. If you call they will literally beg you to keep getting the thing delivered all for this ridiculous rate of only pennies a day. It must have something to do with a certain benchmark of circulation and what they can charge advertisers.

[bikerdude]

Sam has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is an a$$hol.e incapable of running something like the Tribune Company. As someone who has grown up in the newspaper business, I resent it when jerks like him somehow get involved in this business. He has subtracted from the efforts of all news organizations who are trying to uphold the concept of the fourth estate.

[Plus15]

So Sam Zell bought the company only last year. Why? Obviously at one time a shrewd businessman we are left to wonder whether he did any research before buying the Tribune Co. or did he just rely on his gut or his inflated ego?

[fflores]

His plan was to sell of pieces of the company to make money on it..... though i guess he couldn't of seen the economical problem that we are in now.

[Lemeritus]

Zell didn't exactly "buy" the Tribune Company -- he used the employee stock plan to leverage the purchase with very, very little of his own money (which is to say, the employees of Tribune -- those few who have not been laid off -- are really the owners, but not). Early on, Zell made it clear to the staff of the LAT that puppies, not news, sold papers and it's been down hill from there. If Tribune goes down for the count, Mr. Zell will suffer nothing more significant than a financial stubbed toe, whereas two great American cities will have their souls torn out.

[mollyjackson]

No need to bail them out!! No one reads that rag.

[we-r-doomed]

Bail em out!

[fflores]

Zell should sell the Cubs to Mark Cuban, he has the highest bid at one time being 1.3 billion.... MLB is not letting him sell the Cuban because MLB doesn't want to allow Cuban into its good ol' boy network

[larry278]

2 tru. Maybe his Rupertship will buy the Trib but Sam has to sell the Cubs to to pay leveraged loans. The Lords of MLB have to come up with more than $1.3 billion. If MLB moves the Cubs to Japan- there will be a bidding war starting at $3 billion, a domed stadium, Japanese team footing the bill for transportation to Japan & back to visiting teams next game site by Boeing or Airbus jumbo jet. There could be problems. Cubs fans would be a bit angry with MLB for moving Cubs to Japan. The anger could flare when it gets out that Mark Cuban offered $8 billion to Sam & that Mark had $10 billion in ready money to build the Cubs a domed stadium in Chicagoland. Pittsburgh or Cincanasty will also move to Japan, just like the Giants going to SF when the Dodgers moved to LA. MLB will promise Chicago another NL team after MLB expands again.
MLB will eat crow when Mark Cuban buys Chicago's expansion team & builds them a domed stadium. It will get really nasty for the Lords of MLB when the White Sox move to a domed stadium in N Indiana. The Donald will own both the stadium & the Sox.

[situationcritical]

That's news that fit to print!

[wonderama]

Because of budget and staffing cutbacks, the LA Times is a shell of its former self. I used to look forward to the Sunday LA Times, but there are fewer and fewer pages each week. It's getting as thin as the SF Chronicle. Great job, Zell. You've run the paper into the ground. Can you take over Fox News next?

[larry278]

No, but his Rupertship is prepared to take over the Trib & all of the Trib's other papers, TV & radio stations. Even if the Trib becomes like another Murdoch paper, the UK, tabloid, SUN, Chicago will, at last, have something which resembles a newspaper. Chicago, can you handle a Page 3? Phyllis Schaley, Ann Coulter & Sarah Palin on the Trib's Page 3. It would be as big a thrill as Harry Caray singing, "Take me out to the ball game..." , or saying, "It might be, it could be (expletive deleted)...". Chicago, can you handle it? I didn't think so either. Both Chicago's current Cardinal & most famous whisky priest would go into gran mal siezures after seeing that.

[coribbean]

Yeah, not exactly. It is unlikely that his Rupertship will buy a company that has just made a deal to publish some of Rupert's papers including WSJ.

I work for Tribune....but not for long.

[truthyguy]

"a loss of $121.6 million for the third quarter"

Hmmm. Has anyone checked under the mattress? Maybe it's a bookkeeping error.

[LJinFla]

uh huh....does sound fishy, doesn't it.