Tribune Co

Tribune Co. has disclosed that the U.S. Department of Labor has opened an investigation into the company's employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. The Labor Department sent a subpoena March 2 to the Chicago-based media company seeking "an extensive range of documents," Tribune Co. said in a filing made Thursday as part of its bankruptcy case. The company said it produced documents that its lawyers say "substantially complied" with the subpoena.

Jeffrey Chandler, an influential member of the family that built the Los Angeles Times and the last person with the Chandler name to play a significant role in the newspaper's ownership, has died. He was 70. Chandler, who had been a radio station owner and real estate developer in the San Diego area, died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer, his family announced. Long a maverick who sought to return The Times to its conservative roots, Chandler was one of three representatives of his family on the Tribune Co. board of directors who forced a sale of the company to a group headed by Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell in 2007.

Tribune Co. will have to mount some persuasive arguments why regulators should allow real estate mogul Sam Zell to take the media company private, Federal Communications Commissioner Michael J. Copps said. "This is a multifaceted proceeding, so I am not going to prejudge it. I will look at it in terms of the world we live in," Copps said on the sidelines of the National Assn. of Broadcasters' annual conference.

Tribune Co. television stations, including KTLA-TV Channel 5 in Los Angeles, are coming back to satellite broadcaster DirecTV. After a very public feud, DirecTV reached a five-year agreement late Wednesday to pay Tribune to carry its 23 local television stations around the country and its national cable channel WGN America. With more than 19 million subscribers, DirecTV is the second-largest pay-TV operator, behind Comcast Corp. It has a market share of around 20% in Los Angeles.

Two 1998 deals to unload Times Mirror Co. subsidiaries were done for business reasons, and not to dodge taxes, former company executives Mark H. Willes and Thomas Unterman testified Tuesday. Chicago-based Tribune Co., which bought Times Mirror in 2000, is defending the two deals as reorganizations and fighting an IRS demand for nearly $1 billion in taxes and interest. The IRS claims that the divestiture of the Matthew Bender & Co. and Mosby Inc. publishing units were sales in disguise. In U.S.

In 1995, Jeffrey Chandler decided to break with tradition and expose a family schism. A member of the large, extended and very private family that owned the Los Angeles Times, he had come to believe that the newspaper had become far too liberal under the control of his cousin, Otis Chandler. It was time for The Times to return to its conservative roots, Chandler and his sister, Corinne Werdel, told Forbes magazine. "We have the inmates running the asylum," Werdel said.

A boardroom split over Tribune Co.'s stock buyback plan had investors wondering Wednesday whether the disagreement was the first move toward putting the media giant into play for a possible takeover, or simply a negotiation between the company's most powerful players. Tribune's stock rose 31 cents Wednesday to $30.31 -- its highest close in more than two months -- a day after the company said that three of its directors had opposed the refinancing announced May 30.

Nils Larsen, chairman of Tribune Co.'s broadcast division since October, has been named chief executive of Tribune Broadcasting, which is streamlining its upper management. Effective immediately, Larsen, 40, will take on duties that previously belonged to Jerry Kersting, 61, who exits as broadcasting president, a position that is being eliminated. Larsen remains chief investment officer of Tribune, parent of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, KTLA-Channel 5 and other media outlets across the country.

Tribune Co. agreed to sell its suburban shopper, the Penny Saver, to SEI Shoppers Corp. The sale was expected to be completed late this month, Tribune Community Publications said. Terms were not disclosed. The Penny Saver is published and distributed in portions of Du Page, Will and Cook counties in the Chicago area. Tribune Co. publishes the Chicago Tribune and New York's Daily News.

Tribune Co. acknowledged Thursday that it had been subpoenaed in the federal criminal case against Illinois' governor, Democrat Rod R. Blagojevich, and sources confirmed that the FBI had interviewed a close associate of company Chairman Sam Zell. The associate, Nils Larsen, is the financial advisor who allegedly was asked to help get Chicago Tribune editorial writers fired. (None were fired.) Larsen, a Tribune Co.

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV is taking its fight against Tribune Co. to the government. In a complaint filed Monday with the Federal Communications Commission, DirecTV accused Tribune of reneging on a deal that would have kept Tribune's television stations on the satellite service. The filing also said that the bankrupt Tribune's creditors, and not its management, are calling the shots for the stations, even though they do not yet hold the actual licenses. "In another case of runaway Wall Street greed, some of America's wealthiest hedge funds and investment banks, including Oaktree Partners, Angelo Gordon, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank, forced Tribune's senior management to renege on an agreement that would have kept DirecTV customers connected to their local programming," DirecTV said in a statement.

Tribune Co., owner of 16 television stations across the country including KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, is threatening to pull its channels from satellite broadcaster DirecTV. At issue are fees that Tribune, which is also the parent company of the Los Angeles Times, wants DirecTV to pay in return for carrying its local stations. Such fees are known in the television industry as retransmission consent agreements. As broadcasters have faced greater competition for advertising revenue from cable television, most have sought to establish a second revenue stream through retransmission consent fees.

Tribune Co.'s long-running sojourn in bankruptcy shows no sign of ending soon. A federal judge said in a ruling Thursday that he wouldn't hold a hearing on plans to end the three-year bankruptcy until May at the earliest. Tribune had been hoping to resolve the case in the next few months. Even if U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey keeps to his deadline, it will probably take months more for the media conglomerate to emerge from bankruptcy and obtain needed federal regulatory approvals for the transfer of broadcasting and other licenses to new owners.

Tony Hunter, Chicago Tribune Media Group's publisher and chief executive, has added the title of CEO of parent Tribune Co.'s publishing division. The move, announced Monday by Tribune Co. Chief Executive Eddy Hartenstein, is part of the media conglomerate's effort to restructure and streamline its publishing division. Tribune operates the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and other media properties. Hunter will oversee day-to-day operations of seven Tribune Co. daily newspapers and their digital operations.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey on Tuesday asked the bickering parties in the Tribune Co. Chapter 11 case to continue trying to settle their differences. But he also said he would spend most of the next month coming up with a decision that would resolve the case, although he made no promises about when he would be finished. Tribune Co. — the Chicago parent of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune and other media properties — and its creditors have spent the last 21/2 years trying to settle claims stemming from the company's 2007 leveraged buyout.

Nils Larsen, chairman of Tribune Co.'s broadcast division since October, has been named chief executive of Tribune Broadcasting, which is streamlining its upper management. Effective immediately, Larsen, 40, will take on duties that previously belonged to Jerry Kersting, 61, who exits as broadcasting president, a position that is being eliminated. Larsen remains chief investment officer of Tribune, parent of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, KTLA-Channel 5 and other media outlets across the country.

A deadline Tribune Co. set to announce the results of its six-month-long strategic review passed without the media giant revealing a decision about its future. Members of Tribune's board of directors met to consider two offers to buy the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher by circulation. The company's properties include the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and KTLA.

Tribune Co. said operating earnings from continuing operations rose 6% to $124.4 million, or 36 cents a share, in its fourth quarter, from $117.9 million, or 44 cents, a year ago, when there were fewer shares outstanding. The results exclude charges related to the acquisition of Los Angeles Times publisher Times Mirror Co. Operating revenue jumped 96% to $1.5 billion, while revenue on a pro forma basis, which includes Times Mirror, edged up 2%.

Tribune Corp., owner of the Los Angeles Times, is putting new leadership at the top as it prepares to emerge from its prolonged bankruptcy. Times Publisher Eddy W. Hartenstein on Friday was named chief executive of the Chicago-based corporation, which also owns KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune and other media properties. Hartenstein will remain publisher of Los Angeles Times Media Group. With his new responsibilities, he named Kathy Thomson as president and chief operating officer of Times Media.