Newsonomics: Michael Ferro’s Creeping Privatization of Tronc

On Thursday, Michael Ferro solidified his control of Tronc, the company he seized a more tentative kind of control of just 13 months ago, deposing then-Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin in a quick coup de press. This week’s move looked financial, but too, speaks deeply to power and control. ...

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Tronc Investor Patrick Soon-Shiong Ups Stake Again in Battle for Control of Newspaper Giant

What’s a Tronc (TRNC) worth these days, or, more precisely, what’s a quarter of a Tronc worth in early spring 2017? That’s our media math question of the day. On Monday, Tronc Vice Chairman, would-be Friend of Trump, Los Angeles Lakers part-owner and anti-cancer crusader ...

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Tronc’s Adoption of Washington Post’s Arc Platform Doubly Important

This week in Austin, Texas, at the zoo that the South by Southwest Interactive Festival can be, Washington Post Chief Information Officer Shailesh Prakash entertained a few of the digital animals. Prakash, the Post‘s executive in charge of both product and technology, highlighted his pet ...

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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 ...

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Picking Up the Pieces of the Broken Gannett–Tronc Deal

As Gannett’s deal to buy Tronc unwound in real time Thursday, punctuated by historic one-day share price slides, those in and around the deal struggled for words to describe it. Collapse. Hit the wall. Game over. However, for the money guys all around this deal, it’s a phenomenon they’ve seen ...

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Triple Witching This Week @Gannett? 3Q Earnings, “Significant Layoffs” & Tronc Closure

Early in the month, I reported an “imminent” sale of Tronc, publisher of a trove of newspapers including big-city broadsheets like The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, to Gannett, publisher of USA Today as well as a vast array of regional newspapers around the ...

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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 ...

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Tronc Turmoil: Beyond the Public Quiet, Pressure Builds in Delaware Courts, Gannett HQ and Tribune Tower Itself

After noisily consuming much of the news industry oxygen during the first half of 2016, the quiet currently emanating from tronc HQ seems almost unsettling. There have been no tronc announcements since the big news of Tribune Publishing re-naming on June 20. Gannett hasn’t made a peep since ...

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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 ...

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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 ...

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