Tribune Publishing Builds a Southern California War Chest

Chicago entrepreneur Michael Ferro will soon move across town, into the third-floor chairman’s suite in the legendary Tribune Tower. Yes, he’ll be 16 floors below Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin, and the Tower is for sale anyway, but his new presence there will be something to watch. On ...

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Newsonomics: Setting the News Table for 2016

How can we set the table for 2016? Advertising woes continue — deepen, actually. Whole new forms of storytelling open up and go mainstream more quickly. Virtual reality joins the harsher realities. Hundreds of millions in new investment develops alongside an equally strong belief that legacy ...

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Newsonomics: 10 Questions into 2016, Including Ad Blockers, Watson, TPUB and Particles

Everyone’s got questions. CNBC’s crew faced the Republican Ten for about an hour last evening until finding themselves in a no-man’s land. In front of them were the candidates who turned the tables on them, asserting that old standby “media bias.” Behind them was a very un-Boulder-like audience ...

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Tribune Publishing Prepares to Play More Defense

After a mid-month lull, the drama of Tribune Publishing’s future is becoming more public again — on both coasts, and at the mothership in Chicago — highlighting a company still on the defensive. On Sunday, recently fired L.A. Times Publisher and would-be Times buyer Austin Beutner will get a ...

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Behind The Scenes of the L.A. Times Buyout Drive

Veteran Los Angeles Times staffers looked at Page One today and believed the company had sent them a strong message, on this, the long-awaited day when buyouts were announced in the newsroom. Encircling Page One, an all-enveloping American Airlines ad, which left room for three stories on the ...

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Newsonomics: L.A. Consequential

It’s a trademark line of Austin Beutner’s: “I cannot imagine Los Angeles without a vibrant L.A. Times.” As anyone who follows media knows, the Los Angeles Times publisher’s imagination short-circuited the day after Labor Day, when he was fired by Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin (“Tribune to ...

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The Jack Griffin – Eli Broad Stare-Down in L.A.

It’s power vs. power. Who will blink first — and, importantly, how quickly? On Thursday, a group of 60 Los Angeles civic leaders, topped by two former mayors and such heavyweights as Mickey Kantor, chairman of the Los Angeles 2020 Commission; Anthony Pritzker, managing partner of the Pritzker ...

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Could Beutner Return, With Broad In Tow, To The LA Times?

Maybe it’s an L.A. thing, but Austin Beutner, ousted from his position as publisher of Tribune Publishing’s California newspaper group, almost seemed to be channeling Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday: “I’ll be back!” Knowing that his entry card, his email address and his job as publisher ...

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Tribune to Fire L.A. Times Publisher Austin Beutner

Updates on this story, at Politico Media   Tribune Publishing will announce Tuesday the termination of highly regarded L.A. Times publisher Austin Beutner, I’ve learned. Beutner’s leave-taking may be announced as a resignation. The firing is an unexpected one, though one built on ...

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Newsonomics: Razor-Thin Profits Cut Into Newspapers’ Chances at Innovation

If you want to talk about profits at the U.S.’s top newspaper companies, you don’t need big numbers any more. Tribune Publishing could count a bare $2.5 million in net income for the first three months of the year. That’s the combined net of eight metro papers, including the ...

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