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Chicago Tribune is doubling and tripling weekday delivery rates for some readers when their subscriptions come up for renewal. The newspaper, a unit of Chicago-based Tribune Co., has sent some subscribers letters notifying them of the increases; others have simply seen a higher price show up on their credit card bills. The size of the rate jump depends on what a customer was paying previously. “I'm writing to let you know that while we worked hard to maintain pricing in this challenging economy and industry for the last couple years, your current pricing is about to expire,” one letter to...

My head tells me the Oakland Tribune, the Chronicle's main competitor in the East Bay, will go on under a new name, but my heart tells a different story. Starting in early November, the Oakland Tribune and four smaller daily newspapers will operate under a single flag: the East Bay Tribune. The announcement, made Tuesday by the Bay Area News Group, which owns the Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News and 11 community papers in the Bay Area, closes an era in Oakland. The Oakland Tribune has been serving the residents of the community for 137 years. The historic Tribune...

* Thomson Reuters launches U.S. domestic news service * Service is part of "multimillion" dollar investment * Signs Tribune Co as first Reuters America client NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO) (TRI.N) has launched a news service for U.S. publishers and broadcasters in a bid to win business from the Associated Press and CNN. The new service, Reuters America, provides text stories, photos and video by Reuters journalists for newspapers, television stations and online publishers. Newspaper publisher and broadcaster Tribune Co (TRBCQ.PK) is its first customer. As part of the service, Reuters America also will offer...

A group of investors in bankrupt Tribune Co sued JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Citicorp and Bank of America, claiming the banks arranged $3.7 billion in loans in 2007 they knew the company could never repay. "The Lead Banks knew that this financing was barred by the terms of the Credit Agreement and it was tainted with fraud and other misconduct," said the lawsuit, which was filed late on Friday. Tribune, owner of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and 23 television stations, filed for bankruptcy in 2008, just a year after real estate developer Sam Zell bought the company with...

Friday was last call for Randy Michaels as chief executive of Tribune Co. Accused of turning Tribune Tower into a bawdy house, Michaels tendered his resignation. [Snip] Pressure grew on Michaels after a New York Times article portrayed him as creating a sexist and boorish atmosphere within the company. Within days of the story, a top Michaels subordinate sent a companywide e-mail with a link to sexual content. The subordinate, Lee Abrams, resigned last week. Creditors Friday got judicial permission to sue the company chairman, Sam Zell, for taking the company private in 2007 in a debt-laden buyout.

With just over two weeks until Election Day, several Minnesota newspapers are endorsing the Independence Party's Tom Horner for governor. The Star Tribune's editorial board says Horner has the best chance to overcome partisan gridlock in St. Paul. The Forum of Fargo, the Duluth News Tribune and the Bemidji Pioneer also endorsed Horner Sunday. Polls have shown Horner well-behind both Democrat Mark Dayton and Republican Tom Emmer.

Channel 39 will end its traditional newscasts by this fall to launch a new format called NewsFix, which discards on-camera anchors and reporters and focuses on natural sound and video to tell stories. KIAH employees were informed Thursday about the changes, which apparently involve reassigning anchors and reporters to new, off-camera duties and signal a sharp reversal from the station's recent advertising campaign focusing on its lead anchor, Mia Gradney. Roger Bare, Channel 39's general manager, said KIAH will be the pilot program for Tribune Broadcasting's NewsFix, which is expected to launch in late September or early October. "The core...

Photos published on Facebook show top executives of Tribune Co. — led by CEO Randy Michaels — at a gambling, drinking and smoking party in the palatial Tribune Tower office once occupied by the company’s patriarch, Col. Robert R. McCormick. “We are in the office of the guy who ran the company from the 1920s to 1955 — it’s normally a shrine,” wrote John D. Phillips, the Tribune Tower building manager who posted the photos. “We pretty much desecrated it with gambling, booze and cigars. Good thing we know the guy who runs the building!”

Tribune Co.'s Virginia newspaper plans to outsource the editing and designing of much of its content to the newsroom of its corporate flagship, the Chicago Tribune, in a bid to reduce costs and focus resources on local coverage. Staff at both the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., and the Chicago Tribune were told Monday. Since last spring, the Chicago Tribune has been sending edited, formatted and headlined nonlocal stories to smaller Tribune Co. newspapers, which could then drop them onto their pages. This new plan, set to begin Tuesday, involves editing, formatting and producing whole pages for the Daily...

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk is the favorite in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, and for very good reason. He has been an extraordinarily effective representative of the independent-minded 10th Congressional District for a decade. His track record shows he has conservative principles and he has the instincts to succeed in Washington, no matter which party is in control. Kirk is all about fiscal responsibility. He wants to reduce the national debt, balance the budget and stop the disgraceful practice of earmarking billions of taxpayer dollars for politicians' pet projects. He's a committed free trade advocate. He's attentive to the...

Owner of Denver Post, Salt Lake Tribune plans prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Affiliated Media Inc., the holding company for the MediaNews Group family of newspapers that includes The Denver Post, said Friday that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it would file a "prepackaged" plan already approved by lenders, which should allow it to emerge from bankruptcy more quickly. Under the plan, company debt would fall from about $930 million to $165 million. Senior lenders would swap debt for stock. Earlier this week, Morris Publishing Group, owner of 13 daily newspapers including the...

The news is about to get more expensive for readers of the Chicago Tribune in print, as the newsstand price goes to $1 later this month. The 25-cent increase, set to take effect on Jan. 18, will make the newspaper “priced according to its marketplace value,” according to a statement issued by Tony Hunter, publisher, president and CEO of the Chicago Tribune. The increase does not affect home delivery subscriptions or the Sunday edition. The price hike makes the Tribune one of the more expensive metro dailies in the country. The Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times —...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers owned by the Tribune Co. plan to cut back on use of the Associated Press (AP) next week to test whether they can do without content from the US news agency. The Chicago Tribune said the plan to "utilize as little content from the Associated Press as practical" was aimed at determining whether the Tribune Co., which declared bankruptcy in December, can sever ties with the AP. The Chicago-based Tribune Co. has been looking for ways to cut costs and in October 2008 it gave the AP the...

Tribune Co., owner of The Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and several other news outlets, will not use most Associated Press content next week to test whether the financially struggling company can do without it, according to a story on the Chicago Tribune's Web site. Tribune said it will use some AP material such as sports statistics and stories it considers vital. The Chicago-based company said it is trying to determine whether severing ties with the news cooperative next fall is a viable option. The company's television stations and newspapers' online editions will not participate in the experiment. Tribune...

Last November, the American people elected a man president who has never had management or executive experience, and who has only had two years experience in the Senate and a background of associations with persons of far-left ideology and those of shady character. Why did the people make this choice? Some say that Barack Obama has a messianic quality. However, columnist Charles Krauthammer (on Sept. 7) came up with another title that I think fits him better. He said that Obama fancies himself the "Tribune of the People." It is a Roman title that reminds me that Obama used balsa...

If this isn't the perfect example that liberals don't care who has to die in order to make sure that left wing policies win the day, then nothing does. We can see this prime example in Eric Zorn's horrid August 28 editorial where he thanks ... well, whatever deity leftists believe in, if any... that the country didn't quickly find out about the homicide of Mary Jo Kopechne that was committed by Teddy Kennedy in July of 1969. Zorn is happy that the news of Teddy’s crime was quashed for hours as the poor woman slowly drowned while Teddy boy...

Disgruntled Tribune Co. bondholders have asked a U.S. bankruptcy judge to let them investigate Sam Zell's 2007 buyout of the newspaper-and-television chain in an effort to derail a plan that would hand the company over to its banks. The filing, made late Wednesday, calls the $8.2 billion transaction a "fraudulent conveyance" that left Tribune insolvent from the onset of the 2007 deal. It accuses senior lenders led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. of completing a leveraged buyout they should have known would push the company into bankruptcy. "Fraudulent conveyance" is a legal term most often used in bankruptcy court,...

Sam Zell's days as a media titan in Chicago are nearly over. The motorcycle-riding billionaire, renowned for his deft touch with real estate and corporate turnarounds, took Tribune Co. private in late 2007 promising to energize the lumbering company. He piled on debt at exactly the wrong time, and a collapse in advertising for traditional media forced him to take the company to Chapter 11 bankruptcy. » Click to enlarge image Tribune Co. Chairman and CEO Sam Zell (AP) Eight months after the filing, two sources familiar with the process said creditors are working on a reorganization plan that elbows...

For Tribune Co. boss Sam Zell, it's time to play hardball on the sale of his baseball team. Tribune said Thursday it has opened negotiations with other bidders in the sale of the Cubs. People involved in the process said Zell is trying to increase pressure on the Ricketts family to close a deal for around $900 million. After exclusively negotiating with Ricketts, no deal has closed, but one insider said it's close. Sources said Tribune, which is in bankruptcy court, has reopened talks with a New York-based investment group that includes investors Marc Utay and Leo Hindery. Chicago-based bond...

Chicago-based Tribune Co. and its creditors are in the early stages of negotiating a plan of reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that sources said likely would transfer control of the troubled media conglomerate from Chicago billionaire Sam Zell to a group of large banks and investors that holds $8.6 billion in senior debt. The plan is still taking shape, the sources said, and much could change as negotiations continue. But the general contours of a new capital structure are coming into focus, and the plan centers on a debt-for-equity swap that probably would give the senior lenders a large majority...