Michael Ferro Uninterruptus: Can Gannett Pry The Talkative Tribune Head From His New Chair?

Meet Michael Ferro. Ferro, 49, is not yet three months in to his stint as chairman of Tribune Publishing, the newspaper company that owns and operates such august titles as The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and The Baltimore Sun, and he is already fending off efforts from powerful ...

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Digital First Media’s Real Price for Southern California Papers: A Paltry $16 Million

After besting Tribune Publishing to win the Orange County Register and (Riverside) Press-Enterprise out of bankruptcy (“It’s official: Digital First Media defeats Tribune in bid for southern California newspapers”), Digital First Media has flipped the real estate that was included in the ...

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Newsonomics: Fixing the Financials at Tribune Publishing

If you think keeping track of Tribune Publishing’s many ups and downs has been hard for media observers, consider the issues within the company. For the second year in a row, TPUB’s annual 10-K filing has had to note “material weaknesses in the Company’s internal control over financial ...

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Newsonomics: In Southern California’s Newspaper Chaos, Is Anyone Really Speaking For The Readers?

William Baer, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, had already bluntly told all involved in the Freedom Communications newspaper bankruptcy auction that Tribune Publishing should stay out of the bidding. He sent an email two days before ...

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Feds Sue Tribune Hours After It ‘Wins’ Bid for Freedom Communications

What started as a marathon has turned into an obstacle course. In today’s wee hours, just before dawn, Tribune Publishing was named as the “winner” in the Orange County Register bankruptcy auction. Tribune’s winning bid of $56 million in cash – topping high-end estimates of the combined value ...

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Tribune, the Register Auction and DOJ’s Scarlet Letter

For those who have been following the ongoing tragicomedy of California’s dying newspaper industry, today, March 16, marks a climax. And as with all amazing stories, the moments leading up to that climax have made it a nail-biter. The real action is mundane enough: Today is the day that final ...

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Trash-Talking in the O.C., With Two Newspapers Hanging in the Balance

Nothing is easy when it comes to newspapering in southern California. Two bids for the Orange County Register, and associated properties, are now in to a bankruptcy court, and my sources indicate they are on the “puny” side. That may not be surprising, considering the current dismal state of ...

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Michael Ferro Immediately Redefines Tribune Publishing’s Chairman Role

Companion column: Santa Ana Showdown: Tribune’s Bid for Southern California   Michael Ferro’s new title at Tribune Publishing is “non-executive chair.” Since Ferro’s company, Merrick Media, bought a major stake in Tribune earlier this month, he is behaving more like an executive ...

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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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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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