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Transcript

Ruthellyn Musil, Vice President/Corporate Relations

Thanks very much and good morning everyone.

Welcome to our conference call to review 2003 third quarter results. As usual we'll keep our call to about 45 minutes. We understand that many of you have other earnings calls following ours. So, opening remarks will be brief and we'll hope to get to all of your questions.

As you saw on our press release, Tribune's third quarter earnings of 53 cents on a GAAP basis including a five-cent gain associated with non-operating items. This is within the range of analyst estimates on first call and the first paragraph of our release contains the information needed to make a meaningful comparison.

Our speakers this morning are Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune's president and CEO and Donald Grenesko, senior vice president/chief financial officer.

Before turning the call over to Dennis let me just remind you that our discussion may include forward-looking statements that are covered in greater detail in our SEC filings.

Thanks, and now here's Dennis.

Dennis FitzSimons, President and CEO

Thank you, Ruthellyn. Some of us sound a little hoarse this morning because one of our smaller, but most visible business units had a disappointing end to an exciting season. It was a great turnaround year for us and we have a lot to build on. I do think it says something about the interest in our team, when the incredible ratings of this most recent league championship series cause NBC to pull original episodes from their primetime line-up and put on repeats last night. Well, again a disappointing end, but Andy MacPhail and Jim Hendry will have a busy off-season and they'll continue to improve the team.

Going back to regular business we had solid revenue growth of 3.4% in the third quarter. However, as we indicated to you in our second quarter call, we face some significant expense challenges. As we expected, consolidated expenses were up in the mid-single digits due to compensation, newsprint and accelerated amortization of broadcast rights. We also had higher expenses at the Cubs, partially due to adding payroll in July for several new players; however, that investment certainly paid off for us. Since Don will be reviewing the expense picture in some detail, I'll zero in on the revenue picture.

Publishing revenues grew 2% and, as you know, we have significant upside with help wanted advertising. We're seeing a number of good signs in that category going forward. First, help wanted for the publishing group improved to -7% in the third quarter from
-15% in Q2 and we have all markets showing improvement. Second, there are signs that help wanted should start to grow soon again. In September, temporary jobs increased for the fifth straight month and this is traditionally the precursor to help wanted growth. Finally, as help wanted improves, we're well positioned with our integrated print and on-line strategy anchored by CareerBuilder. CB's results were strong once again this quarter; the partnership with Gannett and Knight Ridder generated network revenues of $43 million in the third quarter, an increase of 14% over the second quarter of 2003.

As I think most of you know, CareerBuilder will replace Monster as the exclusive job listings provided for both AOL and MSN beginning next year. This will increase traffic from 7 million to well over 10 million visitors per month and certainly will translate into increased revenue share. The other significant news in publishing this quarter was the launch of two more targeting products that will help us reach new audiences. In early September, we expanded our Spanish language daily Hoy to Chicago . Hoy has enjoyed terrific success in New York where it is the largest Spanish language daily.

The launch has gone smoothly here in Chicago where Hoy replaced a weekly publication called Exito. We added only 1 FTE to do that to make the transition from a weekly to a daily and we're well ahead of plan on paid circulation and advertising. On October 10 th , our second new publication amNewYork, a free commuter tabloid targeted to the 18 to 34-year-old market, launched in Manhattan, a market with 4.5 million daily commuters. We see this as a very worthwhile investment opportunity and plan to build our New York portfolio without cannibalizing the existing assets. amNew York is lead by a management team that orchestrated the successful launch of free newspapers in the Boston area.

Turning to TV, our television revenues were up 5.4% for the quarter with September showing improvement over July and August. Unlike what you have been hearing from the radio business, our local advertising is strong. In fact, it's stronger than national. Second positive from the television business is that we acquired the rights to HBO's award-winning "Sex in the City" and will run an edited, broadcast version, in late-fringe. Because of this, we'll pay a very reasonable price for what we think will be a very highly rated program. The WB's new season had a strong launch, but like some other networks we're faced with tough competition from baseball. That's good news for our Fox stations and, until last night, our Cubs. But the national interest certainly has taken a toll on the WB and all other networks, both broadcast and cable.

We're confident, when things will return to normal the WB will continue its rating growth among the important young demographics. Let's take a look at highlights in the top three markets since they deliver over 50% of our revenue and cash flow. Chicago 's performing especially well. Ad revenues at the Chicago Tribune were up 5% in the quarter and the paper's preprint performance is especially strong.

Chicago magazine's circulation is at the highest point it has been since 1995 and that certainly has been helped by some of the cross-promotion we've put in place. Both WGN-TV and Radio have benefited from the Cubs pennant race in the quarter. As a matter of fact, WGN Radio got its ratings book and posted its best results in years. Certainly the Cubs ratings on both TV and radio says something nicely for 2004 ad sales. In Los Angeles , both the LA Times and KTLA had revenue growth in-line with our overall newspaper and TV numbers this quarter. In addition, LA had its biggest quarter ever for Tribune Media Net in cross-media sales, totaling nearly $5 million for the quarter.

In New York , the market has been soft throughout the quarter and that has impacted the performance of both WPIX and Newsday. One bright spot, however, was classified advertising at Newsday, up 9% offsetting weakness in retail and national.

Moving to the equity line, that made a positive contribution this quarter due in large part to our investments in the Television Food Network and the WB. The equity line will also be positive in Q4 and for the full year.

The expense picture will improve to flat in the fourth quarter as programming rights will be down slightly year-over-year on the broadcast side and management bonus expense will be lower compared to higher accruals last year. As you may recall, for the first six months last year we accrued bonuses at a low level, but as the year improved in the second half, we moved those numbers up.

We're also looking at other ways to control expenses. Like a lot of other companies we'll be very focused on this issue as we go through our 2004 operating plan process, which is ongoing. Right now we are cautiously optimistic about the revenue picture in the fourth quarter. We're looking for continued sequential improvement in newspapers and good television performance against some very tough comps from last year. We'll keep you posted and updated with our monthly revenue releases.

Before turning this to Don, let remind you that our ability to generate cash has never been stronger. Operating cash flow for the full year will be about $1.6 billion and free cash flow will top $800 million. This conversion rate of about 50% is higher than many other media companies, due to continued modest capital expenditures and a conservative debt level. The things look good going forward. Great media businesses in the nation's major markets that combine national scale and strong localism. We're positioned well as the economy continues to improve. Here is Don.

Don Grenesko, Senior Vice President/Finance and Administration

Thanks, Dennis and good morning everyone. Our third quarter-consolidated revenues were up 3.4% over last year, lead by our broadcasting group. Consolidated cash expenses rose by 5.5%, in line with the guidance we gave you in July. However, our cash expenses should be about flat in the fourth quarter. Several factors contributed to the third quarter's higher expenses. Compensation rose as a result of merit increases, higher medical costs and a lower pension credit. Publishing's cash expenses increased by 3.6% as newsprint costs were 9% higher. While the price per ton for newsprint increased 8% in the third quarter, none of the $50 per ton price increase amounts for August was paid in the quarter.

TV cash expenses were up 10% due primarily to the impact of the St. Louis and Portland TV station acquisitions, increased programming costs and higher compensation and benefits. Excluding these acquisitions, expenses would have been up 6%. Programming expenses were higher in the quarter, but are starting to decline since we've cycled through the first year of "Will and Grace." And thanks to our strong line-up, no new sitcoms are being introduced at our stations this fall. We also had higher operating expenses for the Chicago Cubs.

Turning to publishing, revenues grew 2% in the third quarter. Retail rose by 2% driven in part by a 5% increase in preprint revenue reflecting continued strength in Chicago and LA. Categories performing well included furniture, food and hardware. Department stores were soft despite Chicago 's continued strength; however, department stores comprise only 7% of our overall publishing admission revenues. National was up 6% in the quarter, with strength in high-tech, auto manufacturer's and financial. As a reminder, national advertising is 25% of our publishing revenue, significantly higher than the industry average of 16%.

Classified was up slightly in the quarter. Real estate and auto continued to perform well, up 10% and 3% respectively. Help wanted was off 7%. Certainly not a good number, but it still represents a significant improvement over the 15% decline we saw in the second quarter. Interactive revenues were up 24% due to strength in classified as well as banner and sponsor advertising. As a reminder, interactive revenues have been reclassified into the appropriate revenue categories within publishing.

As Dennis mentioned, the equity line shows a $1 million profit this quarter compared with a loss of $28 million in the third quarter of 2002, which reflected our $18 million share of CareerBuilders one time tax charge. This year's third quarter also reflects the equity income from TV Food Network and improved results at the WB network.

Debt will be about $2.2 billion at year-end compared with $2.75 billion at the end of 2002. Our capital expenditures totaled $42 million in the third quarter and should be in the $175 million range for the full year. Finally while it's difficult to predict the revenue picture for the balance of the year, I would like to reiterate that fourth quarter consolidated cash expenses should be about flat with last year and fourth quarter EPS should be within the range of analyst estimates. This assumes a reviving economy and that non-operating items are not material. Now I would be happy to take your questions.

Q&A

Peter Appert, Goldman Sachs

Q. Could you just give us some flavor in terms of what drives your confidence on the improving ad environment going into the fourth quarter? Maybe some flavor for October numbers in both the newspaper and broadcast side?
A. We think that sequentially help wanted will continue to improve. We are again working against tough comps as last year's fourth quarter was so strong, but we're starting to see some improvement in television pacing. It's not great. We're seeing a little bit of strength at the end of the quarter. As it has been well reported, the scatter marketplace in network hasn't been as strong as it was last year. But some of our markets on the local front are looking a little bit stronger. But again, we were plus 22 last year on the TV side and our newspaper revenues were plus seven. So again, we are cautiously and optimistic.

Q. Can you give us any specifics on the pacings?
A. We have not been doing that.

Q. We know you've got the advantageous programming costs going into '04. When do you have to re-up on the program schedule? Is "Sex and the City" large enough to significantly alter the programming expense to rollout?
A. No. That will start in September of '05. That is what we would describe as a reasonably priced product. It is not something that is priced as a blockbuster sitcom, but we do think it has significant ratings upside. We'll have a modest increase in Q4 '04 in programming but the first three quarters we'll have that declining program expense benefit.

Q. And modest would be the right adjective to describe '05 in terms of program cost increases as well?
A. Yes.

Lauren Fine, Merrill Lynch

Q. What you're hearing from any retailers and the expectation if they will re-up on the newspaper side later in the quarter.
A. We're hearing some encouraging news on retail sales for the fourth quarter and we are hoping that translates into greater advertising in the mid to latter fourth quarter.

Q. Could you break out classified for September in terms of help wanted, auto and real estate?
A. In terms of classified in September, we were up 1% in total classified advertising for the newspaper group. The components were help wanted, down 5%, real estate was up 6%, and auto was also up about 6%.

Q. Going a little bit further on the retail side, some other people have suggested they talked to the retailers and the retailers are saying they might come back. It sounds like you're not hearing that specifically.
A. I think a lot of it is market by market. We have seen a lot of strength in Chicago because of re-launch of Marshall Fields State Street store and also Bloomingdale's home store and they have been very aggressive in advertising. Again, it does vary market-to-market, but we are hearing some reasonable forecasts. Particularly in October and part of November. So we're picking up market share and would expect to post an increase in the fourth quarter.

Q. Go back to your comment about being cautiously optimistic. Given the difficult comparisons you have faced on the newspaper side and the TV side, do you expect to show positive rev not growth in the fourth quarter?
A. Yes.

Q. On both segments or just overall?
A. Both segments. On the TV side, our numbers should be better than our peers again because we don't have these enormous numbers in political advertising that some of our peer companies have to deal with.

Q. Is there is a way to quantify the financial impact of the Cubs post season play for the fourth quarter?
A. Around a penny.

William Drewry, CSFB

Q. If you could drill down on what compensation growth will look like over the next quarter or two.
A. In terms of the compensation, the run-rate on merit increases has been 3%. Management bonuses should be down in the fourth quarter this year versus last year for the very reasons that Dennis had mentioned earlier. There was catch-up in the fourth quarter of last year. The pension credit that will also be down in the fourth quarter compared to last year. For the year as a whole it was around $40 million or so in terms of the decline. So it will be roughly $9 to 10 million in terms of the pension credit decline in the fourth quarter versus last year.

Q. Just on help wanted, do you think that you could print a positive number by the end of the year given the trajectory you're seeing and the look you have maybe on October so far, is it possible that you could actually get back to a positive comp?
A. On the help wanted front that we're projecting job creation to really turn in the first quarter of '04, so I'm not sure that we could put a positive numbers in the fourth quarter. But in '04 we have good expectations.

Q. The street estimates for the fourth quarter that range is pretty wide, 61- 71 cents. Any feel on where in the range that you feel comfortable at this point?
A. No. That is the only guidance we're going to give at this point.

Steven Barlow, Prudential

Q. Talk a little bit about your forecast for newsprint prices with the last increase not going through quite yet.
A.. As we had mentioned, we're not paying any of the $50 per ton price increase so far this year. We do expect that a modest portion of that will take hold in the fourth quarter.

Q. On modest increase in newsprint is that from a $50 level or a $35 level and do you think you'll pay any in October?
A. We think that there will be a small piece of that that we'll pay in October and it's probably more towards the $35 as a whole.

Q. You mentioned the WB doing better in the third quarter. I'm just curious whether or whether or not that was a positive contributor in the quarter or just less bad.
A. WB is positive for the year. That's really the guidance we have been giving out. Better than last year and overall for the year the WB will be a positive contributor to the equity line.

Q. Could you give a forecast on the fourth quarter equity line?
A.. In terms of the equity line, we do expect that the fourth quarter will be positive and that for the year as a whole our equity line will be on the positive side.

Douglas Arthur, Morgan Stanley

Q. On the L.A. scene, seems like there is a fair amount of chaos now in the L.A. market with a major supermarket strike and now a transit strike. Any impact you are seeing or may see because of those two events on advertising?
A. The supermarket strike, that is a real small part of our business. Actually it is a category that we view with upside. It is one of the reasons we invested in these improved preprint facilities out there because we weren't getting much of their business. We don't see that as having much of an impact on us at all. And as far as the transit strike, that is a new one and seeing that is not much of a mass transit market, I really don't have a good answer for you on that one. But we'll check get back to you on that.

Q. In terms of the ratings at WB, you've talked about the impact of the baseball playoffs on WB but the ratings do seem to be off to a slow start in the new fall season. I'm wondering if you could just talk a little bit about some of your new shows such as "One Tree Hill," etc. How do you feel about the rest of the season there in terms of some of the other programming.
A. As far as the WB ratings, with so much turmoil in the market I think it is kind of difficult to read. We're pleased with our returning shows. We have seen some increases in the premieres, but with everybody's schedule changing, I think we're going to need to wait until later in October to find out exactly what is going to happen. The fact that NBC was pulling original episodes was surprising but I think that gives you an indication of what impact both the Yankee/Red Sox series and Cubs/Marlins series have had on all network programming, not just broadcast but cable network programming also.

Q. Do you view the NBC/Vivendi combination changing your relationship with the Warner Brothers studio at all over time?
A. No, I don't think so. I think we have become more valuable in terms of shelf space. NBC studios use us as shelf space for their sitcoms and we're hoping they continue to have success putting out some sitcoms. We've been a buyer from Universal TV and we see that relationship continuing. They're not going to be looking to lose market share and I think that they'll be viewing us as a very valuable customer.

Christa Sober, Thomas Weisel Partners

Q. Could you give us a sense as to what the contribution from some of these alternative dailies and weeklies that you have including Hoy the RedEye? If you could give us a sense as to what they were up year-over-year?
A. Again, these are designed to try to reach younger readers. We reach in our Big Three newspaper markets about 50% of 18 to 34 readers every week. We want to increase the frequency that with which we reach them. So that is our goal here. A red eye, we have circulation about 80 they 80,000, about 15% of that is paid.We're trying to migrate to more of a fully paid circulation model there. RedEye is and will be in '04 in a very modest loss position. But we have 250 new clients there that have not advertised in the Chicago Tribune before and looking to reach that younger demo. Hoy, on the other hand, is a real success story. That is 80,000 paid. The largest circulation in New York and we are ahead of schedule here in Chicago with the conversion of our Exito weekly to our Hoy daily. So, the launch has gone smoothly. Revenue projections in terms of advertising are ahead of where we thought we would be and we'll look to roll that out in other markets.

Q. L.A.?
A. Well, I think that is the most logical question. You probably saw the announcement. La Opinion and the Lazano family would like to be independent and they have the option to do that. We certainly wish them well if that transaction comes to be. We certainly think that Los Angeles is a big enough Hispanic market that possibly two newspapers aimed at that community could both flourish. But, we have no specific plans at this point.

Q. I was wondering if you could give us the help wanted numbers, excluding Internet for the quarter and in the month of September.
A. We stated in our press release our online revenues were $25 million up 24% but we're not going to break it out any further.

Q. Cash expenses will be flat in the fourth quarter. I'm assuming newsprint is up so you're expecting actually almost decline excluding newsprint in the fourth quarter?
A. Yes that is correct.

Barton Crockett, J.P. Morgan

Q. I wanted to talk a little bit more about the TV line in terms of the September growth excluding acquisitions was up about 5%. How sustainable is that rate going into the fourth quarter? I assume there is a bit of a Cubs boost there and that will help us through the first part of October and unfortunately not after that.
A. Same-store sales were about 5%-5.5% and as far as that being sustainable, it gets more difficult as we go into October because despite the fact that political advertising is only about 2% to 3% of our annual total, it is still represented some fairly significant dollars in October. Again, not as much as many of our peers, but it gets tough to put an increase on that. The other thing that political does is it tightens the overall market in the pricing structure in markets. So, we're cautiously optimistic for fourth quarter. We look for the quarter overall to be in positive territory and we think we'll be ahead of our peers.

Q. I was wondering if you could give us a sense of what you think is behind some of the market-by-market department store weakness. In other words, is it mainly them cutting back on advertising or more rotation into other media like television?
A. We probably have not been impacted as much as others. Chicago market has done well. Our department store revenues for the entire year are probably about flat. I think it's probably for the two reasons that you had mentioned. We do see that some of the department stores are cutting back on their promotions because of some weak sales. To a lesser extent, some of it is probably moving to other advertising mediums.

James Marsh, S.G. Cowen

Q. You talked about the sequential improvement in help wanted. I was wondering if you could contrast that with real estate. Have you seen a sequential slow down in real estate and is it possible that you might see the gains for help wanted offset by weakness in real estate.
A. In terms of the classified help wanted, we mentioned we were down about 7% in the third quarter and that compared to a 15% decline in the second quarter and an 11% decline in the first quarter, so we do see the sequential improvement there. In September, national job market was up and the temporary job market has been strong for the last five months and that's generally a leading indicator as to where permanent job creation is going. In terms of real estate, we were up 10% in the third quarter, 11% in the second and 13% in the first so we're still seeing double-digit gains there. New construction in Chicago continues to be strong and the resale market in New York is pretty strong. I think as long as interest rates and the mortgage rates remain low, we see that as a continuing good market in real estate.

Q. You mentioned that your local is actually stronger than national. I wanted to get a sense why you thought that might be different than the rest of the industry and is it possibly related to the comps related to political.
A. Part of that could be the location of our markets, in that in L.A. , New York and Chicago there are a lot of national agencies there that we consider local. Political normally does come national so that would have an impact, also. This is something that I have heard other broadcasters mention and has come out in relation to radio. I think this may be more of a radio problem than a television problem.

Let me just mention something regarding radio because it is a question we get asked a fair amount. There are these claims that are made about radio taking share from newspapers. Through the '90's there was the consolidation factor, which gave radio a little bit more pricing power and I think better sales performance. But what we've seen is advertisers reacting to heavier commercial loads which is one of the things that gave radio some potential for growth in the '90's. But now the radio industry is faced with same-store sales and negative reaction from some advertisers because of clutter. As we look to the future, they have got technology issues like MP3 players and satellite radio. So we're just seeing some backlash from advertisers to potential radio increases. I don't see this issue of radio taking share from newspapers as a problem for us. As a matter of fact, with our launch of publications targeting the18 to 34 demo, we look to take market share from them.

Paul Ginocchio, Deutsche Bank

Q. What is going to happen to the equity line when you pull out La Opinion, is there any effect? How much are you willing to invest in EBITDA margin into these sort of new newspapers?
A. On the equity line no effect there with La Opinion. In terms of the niche publications, again we feel making these kinds of modest investments for us makes sense. We can handle the very modest losses upfront and we see these turning in two to three years.

Q. So there is really no affect on the EBITDA line?
A. No, not materially.

Kevin Gruneich, Bear Stearns

Q. The 6% TV cash cost increase. Can you break it out between programming and non-programming?
A. In terms of the 6% increase in the TV expenses roughly half of it is programming and half is -- are other costs increases.

Q. On the newspaper side, non-newsprint cash cost broken out with FTE's versus the cost?
A. FTE's were about flat in the third quarter so the other expenses were up around 3% or so.

John Janedis, Banc of America Securities

Q. On the TV side, can you give us a little more color on some of the categories within local and national?
A. On the TV side, our strongest category continues to be automotive. In the third quarter the weak category was soft drinks. I would say that was the category that moved, I believe on just a 1-quarter basis, from spot to network TV. So that was an issue for us. Movies, we have seen to be about flat and we see releases in the fourth quarter that should be comparable to last year and they would be back loaded into the year. So that will be important for our December. Retail categories was about +2% for us so that gives you some sense of our more important categories. Automotive is the most important category for us with about 19% of our business and that is a little bit less than many of our traditional affiliate peers that have 25% to 35% of their business in automotive.

Q. Is that Auto trend continuing into the fourth quarter?
A. Yes, it is. It continues to be strong.

Q. On the publishing side, can you tell us how some of the more mid-sized markets are performing to the overall publishing segment and also within help wanted.
A. In terms of our mid-sized markets, the two markets that have been hit the hardest are in the Northeast, Baltimore and the Hartford papers kind of in help wanted advertising and in total classified. The areas that have done very well in relation to our other newspapers are in Florida , both in Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale ; their results are a lot better than the group as a whole, both in terms of help wanted and total classified.

Jim Goss, Barrington Research

Q. The tax rate assumptions for fourth quarter and going forward relative to the description you had in your press release and also blended average rates and your debt right now for your interest costs.
A. The tax rate assumption for the fourth quarter is 38.8% and in terms of our debt, we currently have about $2.2 billion of debt outstanding at this point. We have commercial paper of around $125-$150 million of that $2.2 billion and the interest rates we're paying on the commercial paper are somewhere around 1%, maybe slightly higher. The average rate on our overall debt is about 5.75%.

Q. Wondering if you might comment on the outcome of the Freedom Communications issue and how it might affect the L.A. Times competitively, if at all right now and going forward.
A. As far as the outcome of the Freedom auction, we think this is a good outcome for us. We don't think there will be any impact competitively on the L.A. Times. We have had a good track in Orange County recently in terms of improving our readership down there. We don't expect any forays into L.A. Times territory that would cause us additional expense. We think they will continue to operate very rationally and operate more as a locally concentrated Orange County paper. We don't see a problem.

Q. And can you comment on the rough level of profitability at the L.A. Times now that you have had it for a few years, vis-a-vis your other papers and your ultimate goals?
A. As you know, we have taken a lot of cost out there over time. The mission when our people went in there was to improve the editorial product. We feel that's been done and the paper is a lot more navigable. A lot of expense has been taken out. We see some more potential out there for expense savings that John Puerner continues to work on. The economy is a concern out there. But we saw margin improvement despite a weak economy out there in third quarter. That margin improvement probably took us a half step back, but again, we see a lot of potential. We achieved the margin improvement despite a weak revenue picture in the L.A. market. So when things turn we're really well positioned.

Q. Are the L.A. Times margins close to Tribune or Newsday margins or is it still quite a ways away?
A. It's a lot closer than it was and we feel we can get it closer than it is right now.

Q. Comment on the regulatory issues since you're as much in the middle of that as anyone.
A. We feel confident that the cross-ownership piece, that is of most importance to us, will stay in place. So that restriction will be loosened and we will not have any overhanging issues. We feel the cap is likely to end up with 35%, which is okay with us because we're at 30% for FCC purposes. We think the easing of duopoly restrictions will stay in place, also.

Michael Kupinski, A.G.Edwards and Sons

Q. I wanted to drill down on a little of the television side. Hearst Argyle said it was adversely affected by some weak advertising due to weakness in the Northeast and particularly in Boston . Are you not seeing any regional disparities in your television group at this time?
A. Yes, most definitely we are. In the Northeast, we're seeing it in Hartford . With Hearst Argyle having Boston as such an important part of their broadcast group, I would imagine we're seeing some of the same. Also Verizon, which was a very heavy advertiser particularly in New York the last fourth quarter, which was not that strong. But again, I think their results given their traditional affiliate position are going to be more difficult than ours given the political comps they have to deal with. So again, we're not expecting those kinds of negative numbers in the fourth quarter.

Q. Could you tell me what particular stations are actually caring your television group at this point? Is it a particular region or is it like Chicago , for instance?
A. Chicago has been strong. The question actually was asked earlier about the Cubs advantage and certainly that did help us. But as we get towards the end of the season, most of those games go to network. Los Angeles was a little bit stronger, Chicago was stronger, our station in Washington is in the growth mode as is Houston , and our Seattle duopoly has been stronger. So it really varies market-to-market. But I'd say overall we're picking up market share and as we do traditionally in a non-political year.

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This document contains certain comments or forward-looking statements that are based largely on the company's current expectations and are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties. Such comments and statements should be understood in the context of Tribune's publicly available reports filed with the SEC, including the most current annual report, 10-K and 10-Q, which contain a discussion of various factors that may affect the company's business. These factors could cause actual future performance to differ materially from current expectations. Tribune Company is not responsible for updating the information contained in this press release beyond the published date, or for changes made to this document by wire services or Internet service providers.