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Tribune Media history
Tribune Media company history timeline
However, the paper was close to bankruptcy in 1855, at which time Joseph Medill and five partners bought it.
The two papers merged in 1858, resulting in the Chicago Daily Press and Tribune.
In 1860 the paper’s name was returned to the Chicago Daily Tribune.
That year, 1861, also brought the start of the Civil War, during which the Tribune gained national fame for its excellent wartime news coverage and its support of the Union cause.
The Tribune constructed its first building, a four-story structure at Dearborn and Madison Streets, in 1869.
In November 1871, a month after the great Chicago fire, Medill was elected mayor of the city.
Medill declined to run for a second term in 1873.
He bought a controlling ownership interest in the Tribune in 1874 and continued as publisher until his death.
In 1874 he emerged victorious in a struggle with Managing Editor Horace White for editorial control of the Tribune ; Medill borrowed money from department store owner Marshall Field to gain full control of the company's stock.
Abell’s death in 1888 gave control of the paper to his three sons, and they carried on in the founder’s tradition.
Medill's son-in-law, Robert W. Patterson, became increasingly important to the Tribune ; he was named general manager in 1890, after having been managing editor for seven years.
Medill helped to obtain for Chicago the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.
At Medill’s death at age 76 in 1899, Patterson assumed the titles of editor-in-chief of the newspaper and president of Tribune Company.
In 1900 a formidable competitor came to Chicago, as William Randolph Hearst began publishing the Chicago American, a paper with a Democratic political alliance and a sensational reporting style.
The Evening Sun was created out of the Baltimore World, bought in 1910.
Meanwhile, Robert Patterson, Joseph Patterson’s father, had died in 1910.
Katherine McCormick’s eldest son, Medill McCormick, made a mark on the Tribune as a reporter and later business executive, but left the paper in 1910; he had been plagued by psychiatric illness and, upon recovery, opted for a career in politics.
In 1911 Joseph Patterson was elected chairman of Tribune Company and Robert McCormick was named president.
Medill's two grandsons, cousins Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, assumed leadership in 1911.
By then, the parent company also had expanded beyond Chicago, with Patterson’s opening of the New York News —formally the Illustrated Daily News and now known as the Daily News —in 1919.
Patterson established the company's second newspaper, the New York News in 1919.
By 1920 the Tribune had the largest circulation of any Chicago newspaper.
In 1924 Tribune Company formed a subsidiary to publish a weekly national magazine, Liberty, designed to compete with the Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s.
Also in 1924, Tribune Company launched a more enduring venture, with the leasing of Chicago radio station WDAP, whose call letters it changed to WGN—standing for World’s Greatest Newspaper, a nickname the Tribune had given itself.
The company entered broadcasting in 1924 by leasing WDAP, one of Chicago's first radio stations.
The year 1925 was marked by the Tribune Company's opening of its new headquarters, Tribune Tower, a 36-story Gothic tower that is still a Chicago landmark, and the company's decision to provide funds to a journalism school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago.
Tribune later changed the station's call letters to WGN, reflecting the Tribune's nickname, "World's Greatest Newspaper." WGN was purchased by the company in 1926 and went on to become prominent in the radio industry.
Liberty magazine eventually exceeded Collier's circulation, but lacked sufficient advertising and was sold in 1931.
However, Tribune launched the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate content syndication service in 1933.
Kinsley, Philip, The Chicago Tribune, Its First Hundred Years (3 vols.), New York: Knopf, 1943–46.
Joseph Patterson died in 1946.
Tribune entered the television industry then in its infancy, in 1948, with the establishment of WGN-TV in Chicago in April and WPIX in New York City in June of that year.
Also launched in 1948 was WPIX-TV in New York City (the PIX call letters referring to its founder, the Daily News, New York's first picture newspaper).
Tribune Company acquired the paper and operated it until 1954, when it was absorbed by the Washington Post.
Robert McCormick died in 1955 and Chesser Campbell succeeded him as president of Tribune Company.
In 1956, the Tribune Company purchased the Chicago American from William Randolph Hearst.
In 1963 Tribune Company acquired Gore Newspapers Company of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, publisher of the Fort Lauderdale News and the Pompano Sun-Sentinel.
Also in 1963, the company purchased part of the defunct New York Mirror.
In 1965 Tribune Company bought the Sentinel-Star Company, a publisher in Orlando, Florida.
In 1967 the Chicago Tribune responded to suburban growth by beginning to publish a tabloid aimed at suburban readers.
In 1967, the company began printing a tabloid serving suburban areas of Chicago, The Suburban Trib.
In 1968 there came a major corporate reorganization, with Tribune Company dropping its Illinois incorporation and rein-corporating in Delaware, which provided a better climate for companies planning expansion and diversification.
The corporation was reorganized in 1968 by reincorporating under Delaware's General Corporation Law, ending its Illinois incorporation, splitting its stock by four for one and forming a separate subsidiary of the Chicago Tribune.
The Chicago newspaper opened 1969 by abandoning the policy of partisan slanting of news, while it remained conservative on the editorial page.
In 1973, the company began sharing stories among 25 subscribers via the newly formed news service, the Knight News Wire.
The company stopped publishing the tabloid Chicago Today in 1974; the Tribune also began publishing all-day editions.
The Tribune Company entered first-run television syndication in 1975 with the debut of the United States Farm Report.
The Times-Advocate in Escondido, California was purchased by the company in 1977.
In October 1978, United Video Satellite Group uplinked WGN-TV's signal to satellite, becoming a national "superstation", joining the ranks of WTCG (later WTBS, now WPCH-TV) in Atlanta and WWOR-TV in New York City.
The New York Daily News was beset with strikes by pressmen, deliverers, and editorial personnel in 1978, but the parent company still had a record profitable year.
Two dissident shareholders, Josephine Albright—Joseph Patterson’s daughter—and her son, Joseph Albright, challenged the by-law changes in a lawsuit that was dismissed in 1979.
An afternoon edition of the Daily News began publishing in 1980 to go up against the New York Post; however, the edition did not succeed in terms of circulation or profits, so it closed the following year.
In 1981 Tribune Company acquired the Chicago Cubs baseball team from William Wrigley for $20.5 million.
Also in 1981, Tribune Company began seeking buyers for the New York Daily News, which had experienced declines in circulation and advertising and rises in costs and competition.
In 1981 Tribune Broadcasting Company was established as an umbrella subsidiary for the television stations.
When a proposed sale to Texas financier Joe Allbritton fell through, the company opted to revitalize the Daily News, taking a charge of $75 million in the second quarter of 1982 to do so.
The year 1983 brought the Tribune Company’s purchase of WGNO-TV in New Orleans, as well as the public stock offering that had been speculated on for so long.
Tribune Company acquired two key employees from the Chicago Sun-Times in 1984 after the Sun-Times was sold to Rupert Murdoch, the controversial publisher of the New York Post.
In 1985, Tribune Broadcasting acquired Los Angeles independent station KTLA from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for a record $510 million.
The Sun papers have always provided outstanding war coverage, particularly in World War II. The Sun newspapers, together with their corporate owner, the A.S. Abell Company, were bought by the Times Mirror Company in 1986.
The company acquired Newport News, Virginia newspaper, the Daily Press in 1986, but sold off the newspaper's co-owned cable television operations.
Tribune Entertainment experienced success in 1987 with the launch of the syndicated daytime talk show Geraldo.
In 1988, once a city ban was lifted, the company installed lights in Wrigley Field and began Cubs night games; the park had been the last in the major leagues with day baseball only.
In 1988, Tribune purchased five weekly papers based in Santa Clara County, California.
Tribune Company was the 11th-largest media company in the United States at the end of 1989.
Tribune Company had been forced to take a Daily News-related charge of $255 million in 1990, leading to a net loss for the year of $63.5 million.
In March 1991 the company paid Maxwell $60 million to assume the Daily News' liabilities.
Nine of the ten unions at the Daily News went on strike in October; the newspaper struggled to publish with replacement workers and eventually, as the strike dragged into 1991, Tribune Company announced that the paper would close unless it was sold.
Tribune Company continued forging ahead on other fronts, with plans for a cable TV station covering Chicago’s suburbs to begin in 1991.
Already possessing strong positions in two business sectors, Tribune Company quickly added a substantial third leg to its operations with the beginnings of Tribune Education in 1993.
In 1993, Tribune Broadcasting launched Chicagoland Television (CLTV), a 24-hour local cable news channel for the Chicago area.
Tribune entered into a new business sector when it formed Tribune Education in 1993.
Teinowitz, Ira, “Taking Charge at Tribune Co.: New President Madigan Sees Growth Ahead,” Advertising Age, June 6, 1994,p.
In November 1994, Tribune Broadcasting formed a partnership with several minority partners, including Quincy Jones, to form Qwest Broadcasting.
Starting in 1995, online versions of each of these papers began to be developed, with the Internet edition of the Chicago Tribune debuting on the World Wide Web the following year.
The mill marked the beginnings of the Canadian newsprint producer later known as QUNO, in which Tribune held an investment interest until 1995.
An Internet version of the paper was launched in 1996.
Also in 1996, Tribune (holding a 20% interest) created a joint venture with American Online (which held an 80% interest) called Digital City, Inc. to set up a series of Digital City websites to provide interactive local news and information services.
Through 1996, Tribune used $400 million to purchase several publishers of education material: Contemporary Books, Inc., The Wright Group, Everyday Learning Corporation, Jamestown Publishers, Inc., Educational Publishing Corporation, NTC Publishing Group and Janson Publications.
The company began the decade with just six stations but added ten more by 1997.
In 1997 Tribune Education spent $80 million for an 80.5 percent stake in Landoll, Inc., a leading publisher of children’s books for the mass market, thus providing entree into the consumer market.
Tribune Broadcasting purchased ten additional stations by 1997, six of them acquired through that year's purchase of Renaissance Broadcasting for $1.1 billion in cash.
Also in 1999 the company created a subsidiary called Tribune Interactive, Inc. to manage the web sites of its newspapers, television stations, and publishing operations.
Two more WB stations were acquired later in 1999: WEWB in Albany, New York, for $18.5 million and WBDC in Washington, D.C., for $125 million.
During the 1999 fiscal year, Tribune racked up $1.47 billion in profits on total revenues of $2.92 billion, in part from gains made on the sale of some of its internet investments.
Tribune divested its Tribune Education division to The McGraw-Hill Companies for $686 million in September 2000.
Flight information provider Jeppesen Sanderson was sold to Boeing for $1.5 billion in October 2000.
Tribune Media Net, the national advertising sales organization of Tribune Publishing, was established in 2000 to take advantage of the company's expanded scale and scope.
In July 2001 Dennis FitzSimons was named president and chief operating officer of Tribune Company.
By 2001, revenues had grown to $5.25 billion.
On the print side, Tribune Company spent $35 million in August 2002 to acquire Chicago magazine from Primedia, Inc.
Tribune Publishing purchased the monthly lifestyle publication Chicago from Primedia, Inc. in August 2002.
At the turn of the 21st century, the Tribune underwent a series of leadership changes and began to venture into new initiatives, including a free tabloid edition, RedEye (2002), which was geared toward younger readers.
FitzSimons took over as president and CEO of Tribune Company in January 2003, becoming the first person to attain that position without first serving as publisher of the company's flagship newspaper, the Chicago Tribune.
The fourth television station acquired was KPLR-TV in St Louis, which was purchased for $200 million in March 2003.
The Chicago Cubs, meantime, won the National League Central Division in 2003 and then proceeded to win their first postseason series in 95 years.
At the end of 2003 Madigan retired from the company after a 28-year career, as FitzSimons took on the chairmanship as well.
Tribune also launched daily newspapers targeting younger urban commuters, including the Chicago Tribune's RedEye edition in 2003, followed by an investment in AM New York.
Developer Sam Zell gives a lecture, "Definition of an Entrepreneur," at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in March 2004. (E. Jason Wambsgans)
In 2006, Tribune acquired the minority equity interest in AM New York, giving it full ownership of the newspaper.
The company received an option to purchase the real estate for $175 million through the 2006 restructuring of TMCT, LLC.
On April 2, 2007, Chicago-based investor Sam Zell announced plans to buy out the Tribune Company for $34.00 a share, totalling $8.2 billion, with the intent to take the company private.
On April 28, 2008, Tribune completed an acquisition of real estate from TMCT Partnership.
On July 29, 2008, Cablevision Systems Corporation completed its purchase of Newsday from Tribune.
On December 8, 2008, faced with a high debt load related to the company's privatization and a sharp downturn in newspaper advertising revenue, Tribune filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
In 2008 the Tribune Company agreed to sell Newsday to Cablevision Systems Corporation.
The company sold both Newsday and AM New York to Cablevision Systems Corporation in 2008.
On October 27, 2009, Thomas S. Ricketts purchased a majority ownership (95%) of the Chicago Cubs.
Company plans originally called for it to emerge from bankruptcy by May 31, 2010, but the company would end up in protracted bankruptcy proceedings for another four years.
In October 2010, Randy Michaels, who was appointed CEO after Zell's purchase of the company, was removed and replaced by an executive council.
Michael Ferro, chairman of the Chicago Sun-Times LLC, speaks during the "Titans at the Table" Bloomberg Television program on April 18, 2012.
On July 13, 2012, the Tribune Company received approval of a reorganization plan to allow the company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Delaware bankruptcy court.
The parties also agreed to a five-year lease allowing its television station in the city, KTLA, to continue operating at the location through 2012.
On February 26, 2013, it was reported that Tribune hired investment firms Evercore Partners and J.P. Morgan to oversee the sale of its newspapers.
Tribune later announced its return to television production on March 19, 2013, with the relaunch of the production and distribution division as Tribune Studios (not to be confused with the former name of Los Angeles studio facility Sunset Bronson Studios).
On July 1, 2013, Tribune announced that it would purchase the 19 television stations owned by Local TV, LLC outright for $2.75 billion.
On July 10, 2013, Tribune announced that it would split into two companies, spinning off the newspapers that were part of its publishing division into a separate company.
On November 20, 2013, Tribune announced it would cut 700 jobs in its newspaper operations, citing falling advertising revenue.
Tribune Publishing announces it will pay a special cash dividend of $56 million to shareholders — the first since Tribune Publishing was spun off into a stand-alone company in August 2014.
The split was finalized on August 4, 2014, with the publishing arm being spun out as Tribune Publishing, and the remainder of the company renamed Tribune Media.
Coincident with emergence from bankruptcy, company stock began trading as an over-the-counter security under the symbol TRBAA. In December 2014, over-the-counter trading ended and the company's stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TRCO.
Tribune Publishing, which also publishes the Los Angeles Times in Southern California as well as other properties nationwide, has agreed to buy San Diego's dominant newspaper for $85 million, U-T San Diego reported Thursday, May 7, 2015. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File) (Gregory Bull/AP)
Most recently, Dearborn was CEO of Merge, a health care technology company acquired by IBM in October 2015.
The bid needs court approval, with a hearing scheduled for March 21, 2016, but must overcome serious anti-trust concerns raised by the United States Department of Justice.
In December 2016, Tribune Media sold Gracenote to Nielsen Holdings for $560 million; Tribune planned to use the sale to pay down a debt of $3.5 billion.
In 2016, the company, then known as Tronc, adopted a similar shareholder rights plan to fend off unsolicited and ultimately unsuccessful takeover bids by rival newspaper chain Gannett.
In January 2017, Tribune Media announced that Peter Liguori would step down as President and CEO in March.
On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group officially announced its intent to acquire Tribune Media in a cash-and-stock deal valuing the company at $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune.
On October 19, 2017, the sale was approved by Tribune Media shareholders.
Cash on hand was expected to pay out $500 million in dividends in the first quarter of 2017.
The new Chicago Tribune newsroom at One Prudential Plaza on June 12, 2018. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)
On August 9, 2018, Tribune decided to back out on the merger, and decided to sue Sinclair, alleging breach of contract.
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar Media Group announced its intent to merge with Tribune Media for $6.4 billion and it will still be known as "Nexstar Media Group". The sale would give the company 216 stations in 118 markets, placing it just below the FCC's market cap of 39% of TV households.
On January 21, 2019, it was reported that Nexstar Media Group has agreed to merge with Tribune Media for about $4.1 billion in cash, making it the largest regional United States TV station operator and will take the Nexstar name.
Tribune Publishing CEO Tim Knight celebrates reaching the 100,000 digital subscriptions mark at the Chicago Tribune's headquarters in Chicago on April 30, 2019. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)
Terry Jimenez cuts a cake during the New York Daily News' 100th anniversary in the newsroom on June 24, 2019. (Danielle Hyams/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
Her first book, "He Had It Coming: Four Murderous Women and the Reporter Who Immortalized Their Stories," co-authored with Marianne Mather, was released in February 2020.
The hedge fund also agrees to cap its ownership stake at 33% through June 2020.
"Tribune Company ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 22, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/tribune-company-0
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Tribune Media competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meredith Corporation | 1902 | $3.0B | 7,915 | 68 |
| Los Angeles Times | 1881 | $780.0M | 2,052 | 14 |
| Kshb / Kmci / The Ew Scripps Company | - | - | - | - |
| Gannett | 1906 | $3.2B | 21,255 | 141 |
| New York Post | 1801 | $220.0M | 975 | 67 |
| Entertainment Weekly | 1990 | $12.0M | 172 | - |
| ViacomCBS | 2019 | $14.5B | 12,700 | - |
| Tribune Publishing | 1847 | $746.3M | 6,333 | 10 |
| AMC Networks | 1980 | $2.4B | 2,197 | 59 |
| The Daily Gazette | 1894 | $1.8M | 50 | - |
Tribune Media history FAQs
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Tribune Media may also be known as or be related to TRIBUNE MEDIA CO, Tribune Company (1861–2014), Tribune Media, Tribune Media Co. and Tribune Media Company.