Newsonomics: Can The L.A. Times Pull From the Washington Post Playbook?

Pay up. News readers get that message more and more frequently these days, as big news sites tighten up their paywalls, allowing fewer free articles per month. While The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as The New Yorker and The Atlantic, have won the big Trump Bump digital ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Tronc & The Daily News, What To Make Of This Out-Of-The Blue Buy

For much of the winter and spring, Michael Ferro was uncharacteristically quiet. Once he’d defeated Gannett’s hostile takeover attempt of his newly named Tronc, Ferro seemed to cease being the center of the news industry storm. Some applauded; others privately told me they missed ...

Read More

Michael Ferro’s Tronc Aims to Complete Chicago Domination With Sun-Times Purchase

Update: Final bids for the Sun-Times are now due on June 5: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-tronc-sun-times-deal-other-buyers-0601-biz-20170531-story.html   While Tronc chairman Michael Ferro has enjoyed the celebrity allure of his largest paper, the Los Angeles Times, it is in ...

Read More

Ken Doctor: Michael Ferro’s Tronc Nears Purchase of Wenner’s Us Weekly

Tronc (TRNC) , the third-largest U.S. newspaper company, is closing in on a deal to buy Us Weekly from Jann Wenner’s Wenner Media. The purchase price likely would be in the $85 million to $95 million range, sources said, with Tronc chairman Michael Ferro believing the acquisition will ...

Read More

Tronc Considers a Counter to Gannett’s 3rd-Sweetened Offer

It’s apparently no longer a question of whether to sell or not, but for how much. For four months, Tronc – the company formerly known as Tribune Publishing, parent of The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune among other similarly august titles in smaller markets – has steadfastly and ...

Read More

Tronc Awards Potential Millions to Two Top Execs; CEO, CFO Could Get Last Tronc Laugh if Gannett Buys the Company

In a move of perhaps canny timing, two top Tronc executives are now enjoying enhanced pay packages – ones that will pay out millions of dollars should Tronc be sold to Gannett or another bidder. Further, the possibility of sale – still a quite live one this summer – could be on the table ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Tronc M, Tronc X, or Just Tronc — It’s Still in An Uncertain Position

Related column: A Tronc Tomorrow: The Return of Gannett and the Uberfication of News   Anyone looking for drama in today’s Tronc second-quarter financials was disappointed. No dramatic announcements, internally or externally — and not a peep out of Gannett of its intentions to mount a new ...

Read More

A Tronc Tomorrow: The Return of Gannett and the Uberfication of News

  Related column: Newsonomics: Tronc M, Tronc X, or just Tronc — it’s Still in an Uncertain Position   Time for another Tronc (Tribune Publishing) quarterly financial report. Time for more intrigue. And this time, we can ask: what kind of surprise might tronc chairman and digital ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Can Michael Ferro’s ‘I Am Tribune’ Routine Hold Up In Court?

As Gannett’s strategy to make a quick kill of Tribune Publishing goes south, could a lawsuit save it?   Large Tribune investors have all but threatened to file suit. They’ve charged that Tribune chairman Michael Ferro isn’t representing the interests of all shareholders, as a leader of a ...

Read More

Newsonomics: Readers’ Guide Tribune gets Troncked: A Reader’s Guide to the Tribune/Gannett War

        In a move that, even amid all the nastiness of the Tribune/Gannett war, we would still have to consider stunning, Tribune Publishing has renamed itself — to tronc. In a memo to Tribune staff this afternoon, CEO Justin Dearborn wrote: Today, I am pleased to announce ...

Read More