Gannett, Scripps eyeing possible Pulitzer purchase

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 10, 2004 | by Jim Suhr Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- Newspaper publishers Gannett Co. and E.W. Scripps Co. plan to take a look at Pulitzer Inc., the company exploring a possible sale some analysts expect to fetch about $1.5 billion, officials with Gannett and Scripps said.

"We'd obviously be interested" in the publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and more than a dozen other newspapers, including The Daily Herald in Provo, Gannett chairman, president and CEO Douglas McCorkindale said Wednesday during an investor conference sponsored by the UBS investment bank in New York.

Still, McCorkindale said, Gannett -- the nation's largest newspaper publisher -- would be a disciplined buyer, unwilling to overpay.

"What we are seeing are some very aggressive prices on stand- alone properties, off the charts from our point of view," McCorkindale said without being specific. "On the television side, the asking prices seem to be quite a bit higher than what we think are reasonable."

Tim Stautberg, a spokesman for Cincinnati-based Scripps, told Scripps' Cincinnati Post for Thursday's editions that "We take a look at everything that comes up, but to infer that there is more interest than that is stretching."

Scripps' holdings also include several fast-growing cable networks, including the Food Network and Home & Garden Television. Gannett, with its flagship publication USA Today as the country's largest-selling daily, also owns 21 television stations, including St. Louis' KSDK-TV.

Though Gannett, based in McLean, Va., until Wednesday had been publicly silent about any interest in St. Louis-based Pulitzer, some already broadly viewed it as a possible suitor because Gannett and Pulitzer were well-acquainted, including their joint operating agreement in Tucson, Ariz., between Pulitzer's Arizona Daily Star and Gannett's Tucson Citizen newspapers.

Pulitzer, with $423 million in revenue last year, announced last month it has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as financial adviser and would explore "a range of strategic alternatives," including a potential sale.