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A Piece-by-Piece Look at Tribune's Shrinking Empire

Len Irish

By Emily Thornton and Michael Arndt

A Piece-by-Piece Look at Tribune's Shrinking Empire

When real estate mogul Sam Zell first bought Tribune last December, he said he wanted to revive the media empire's businesses. Just seven months later, Zell told BusinessWeek in an interview that virtually every asset, except the Chicago Tribune, may be sold. What gives? Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, which traditionally have accounted for about 70% of the media company's revenues, are suffering from a sharp drop in ads. At the same time, debt obligations have climbed as a result of the $12.8 billion debt burden Zell's buyout put on the company. Zell needs to sell prime assets to pay nearly $2 billion of debt obligations due by the end of 2009. Here's a look at what's on sale, and what could be if the situation gets worse.

DATA: BusinessWeek, Barclays Capital, company filings