Tribune Investors Want It to Undo Consolidation, Cross-Ownerships

So why is Tribune, which owns eleven newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday, as well as 25 television stations, bucking the bearish trend in the newspaper biz?  Because investors are hoping that the company will be broken up or sold outright.  The Chandler family, which came to own 15% of Tribune after they sold the LA Times to it in 2000, sent a letter to Tribune's board in June urging the company to spin-off its broadcast division or even look for a buyer for the whole company. Ironic that the LA Times just wrote an editorial extoling the virtues of media consolidation and cross-ownership while the Chandlers, the paper's former owners, say Tribune's cross-ownership of papers and TV stations has provided no benefits to either the company or the public and should be undone.  Link: Wall Street's tribute to Tribune - Aug. 30, 2006.