Tribune Company History



Address:
435 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611-4066
U.S.A.

Telephone: (312) 222-9100
Fax: (312) 222-1573

Website:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1861
Employees: 23,800
Sales: $5.59 billion (2003)
Stock Exchanges: New York Chicago Pacific
Ticker Symbol: TRB
NAIC: 511110 Newspaper Publishers; 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 515112 Radio Stations; 515120 Television Broadcasting; 515210 Cable and Other Subscription Programming; 516110 Internet Publishing and Broadcasting; 519110 News Syndicates; 711211 Sports Teams and Clubs

Company Perspectives:

Mission: Build businesses that inform and entertain our customers in the ways, places and at the times they want.

Key Dates:

1847:
James Kelly, John E. Wheeler, and Joseph K.C. Forrest begin publishing the Chicago Daily Tribune newspaper.
1855:
Joseph Medill and associates purchase the paper.
1858:
The paper is merged with the Democratic Press, forming the Chicago Daily Press and Tribune.
1860:
The paper's name returns to the Chicago Daily Tribune.
1861:
Tribune Company is incorporated; the paper is renamed the Chicago Tribune.
1874:
Medill gains full control of Tribune Co.
1911:
The company falls under the control of two grandsons of Medill, Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson.
1919:
Patterson launches the New York News (later the Daily News).
1924:
The company expands into radio with the launch of the Chicago station WGN.
1925:
The company's new headquarters, Tribune Tower, is opened.
1933:
The Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate is formed and is the forerunner of the Tribune Media Services syndication service.
1948:
WGN-TV begins broadcasting in Chicago, and WPIX-TV in New York City.
1963:
Tribune acquires the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
1965:
The Orlando Sentinel newspaper is added to the fold.
1978:
WGN-TV becomes a nationwide cable television "superstation."
1981:
The company buys the Chicago Cubs baseball team from William Wrigley for $20.5 million; Tribune Broadcasting Company is established.
1982:
Tribune Entertainment Company is established.
1983:
Tribune Company goes public.
1985:
Los Angeles station KTLA-TV is acquired for $510 million.
1991:
Following a protracted strike, the company divests the New York Daily News.
1993:
CLTV News, Chicago's first 24-hour, local news cable channel, is launched; an educational publisher arm, Tribune Education, begins to be built through acquisitions.
1995:
Tribune acquires a 12.5 percent stake in the upstart Warner Bros. (WB) Television Network.
1997:
The company acquires Renaissance Communications Corp. and its six television stations for $1.1 billion.
2000:
Tribune acquires the Times Mirror Company for $8.3 billion, gaining the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, and several other newspapers; Tribune Education is sold off, as are three units acquired as part of the Times Mirror deal: Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc., AchieveGlobal, and Times Mirror Magazines.
2002:
The company trades two of its Denver radio stations for two television stations in Indiana; Chicago magazine is acquired for $35 million.
2003:
Tribune exchanges its last Denver radio station for a television station in Portland, leaving the company with one remaining radio station, WGN-AM in Chicago; a fourth television station, KPLR-TV in St. Louis, is purchased for $200 million; Dennis FitzSimons takes over as president, CEO, and chairman.

Company History:

Further Reading:

  • Alkin, Michael, "The Tribune Company: Batter Up," Financial World, March 18, 1997, pp. 24, 26.
  • Borden, Jeff, "Merger Heat for Trib Co.: Big Media Combines Make It Also-Also Ran," Crain's Chicago Business, August 7, 1995, pp. 3, 34.
  • ------, "Trib CEO Shuns Headlines: Ad Slump, Daily News Woes Test Low-Key Style," Crain's Chicago Business, July 9, 1990, p. 1.
  • ------, "Trib Co. Buys Low, Flies High with Shrewd Internet Buys," Crain's Chicago Business, August 30, 1999, p. 4.
  • ------, "Trib's Blessing and Curse: Cash," Crain's Chicago Business, May 6, 1996, pp. 1, 78.
  • ------, "Tribune Rewrites Corporate Future," Crain's Chicago Business, January 20, 1992, pp. 1, 45.
  • ------, "With News an Old Story, Trib Is in a Mood to Shop," Crain's Chicago Business, May 20, 1991, p. 3.
  • Byrne, Harlan S., "Thank You, Geraldo Rivera: Tribune Co. Is Full of Good News," Barron's, November 21, 1988, pp. 36-37+.
  • Copple, Brandon, "Paper Tiger," Forbes, March 19, 2001, p. 66.
  • Fawcett, Adrienne, "Tribune's Vision Goes Well Beyond Online Newspapers," Advertising Age, June 2, 1997, pp. S-8, S-10.
  • Fitzgerald, Mark, "Broadcasting Dominant," Editor and Publisher, July 13, 1996, p. 17.
  • Fitzgerald, Mark, and Todd Shields, "Tribune Taps Broadcast's FitzSimons As New Head," Editor and Publisher, December 9, 2002, p. 3.
  • Gelfand, M. Howard, "Tribune Fine-Tunes Plans by Unloading Cable," Crain's Chicago Business, October 27, 1986, p. 22.
  • Kinsley, Philip, The Chicago Tribune, Its First Hundred Years (3 vols.), New York: Knopf, 1943-46.
  • Kogan, Rick, "Down to Business: Tribune Company," Chicago History, March 1993, pp. 20-25.
  • Lazare, Lewis, "Flush Tribune Fine-Tunes Broadcast Unit's Signals," Crain's Chicago Business, April 25, 1988, p. 2.
  • Littleton, Cynthia, "Renaissance Buy Should Boost Tribune Entertainment," Broadcasting and Cable, July 8, 1996, p. 9.
  • McCarthy, Michael J., and Matthew Rose, "Media Owners See Few Benefits of Bundling Ads," Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2003, p. B1.
  • McCormick, Brian, "Meet Trib's Next CEO: Broadcast Vet FitzSimons a Break from Print Past," Crain's Chicago Business, May 6, 2002, p. 4.
  • Miller, James P., "How Tribune Grabbed a Media Prize: With a $5.9 Billion Deal, Tribune CEO's Strategy Is Put to High-Stakes Test," Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2000, p. B1.
  • Milliot, Jim, "Tribune Spends $97 Million on Publishing Acquisitions," Publishers Weekly, July 12, 1993, p. 12.
  • Milliot, Jim, and Bridget Kinsella, "Tribune Acquires EPC, NTC for Total of $282 Million," Publishers Weekly, February 12, 1996, p. 10.
  • Moore, Thomas, "Why Tribune Co. Is Feeding the Chicago Cubs," Fortune, June 28, 1982, pp. 44+.
  • Mullman, Jeremy, "Media Muscle: No Longer a Mere Newspaper-Broadcast Concern, Tribune Co. Intends to Get Bigger," Crain's Chicago Business, June 2, 2003, p. A75.
  • ------, "Trib Triumph at Risk: Firm Could Win or Lose Big As Congress Revisits FCC Rules," Crain's Chicago Business, August 4, 2003, p. 1.
  • Rathbun, Elizabeth A., "Tribune's Renaissance," Broadcasting and Cable, July 8, 1996, pp. 4, 8-9.
  • Rowan, Roy, "Secrets of the Tribune Tower," Fortune, April 5, 1982, pp. 66+.
  • Santoli, Michael, "Widening Net: Tribune's National Reach Offers Potential Overlooked by Wall Street," Barron's, September 18, 2000, pp. 18, 20, 22.
  • Smith, Richard Norton, The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick, 1880-1955, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
  • Squires, James D., Read All About It!: The Corporate Takeover of America's Newspapers, New York: Times Books, 1993.
  • Sturm, Paul W., "Is There an Exorcist in the House?," Forbes, September 1, 1977, p. 61.
  • Teinowitz, Ira, "Taking Charge at Tribune Co.: New President Madigan Sees Growth Ahead," Advertising Age, June 6, 1994, p. 11.
  • ------, "Tribune Looks Forward with Latest Acquisitions," Advertising Age, August 2, 1993, p. 20.
  • Weber, Joseph, "Ad Slump? What Ad Slump?," Business Week, March 12, 2001, pp. 78-79.
  • Weiner, Steve, "It's a Changing World," Forbes, October 3, 1988, pp. 88+.
  • Wendt, Lloyd, Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great American Newspaper, Chicago: Rand McNally, 1979.
  • "What Turned Tribune Co. into a Penny Pincher," Business Week, June 22, 1981, pp. 111+.

Source: International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.63. St. James Press, 2004.